Introduction to the second edition

The years covered by this pamphlet mark an important period for the whole of the movement against capital. It was at this time that the antagonist movement in Italy finally shed all its taboos concerning destruction, violence and the use of arms against the class enemy. It became normal to respond to the humiliation and tyranny of capitalism with the arms considered to be the most effective for doing so, and acts of violence by bosses, police and fascists found an immediate response both in the streets and in specific retaliatory actions against them.

During this period a vast quantity of groups and struggle organisations emerged, convinced of the need to extend and heighten the armed struggle against capital. Many of these, in keeping with their leninist convictions, reached the conclusion that capitalism’s final crisis had arrived, that victory was near and that it was time to fight the State on its own terms, in closed militaristic organisations (the armed wing of the proletariat) aimed at taking over and directing first the struggle, then the State. Their objectives were to recruit comrades into their organisations—the only ones entitled to carry out this historic task according to them—and to raise the level of the struggle to the ultimate moment of victory. When their analysis proved to be mistaken (that the end of capitalism was not imminent, instead it was going through a difficult phase of re-structuring), they began negotiating with the enemy to have their prisoners released, even at the cost of dissociating themselves from the struggle and from revolution itself.

But there was another dimension present in the struggle at the end of the seventies, one consisting of autonomous actions carried out by affinity groups formed for the duration of the action itself. At the time when we first published this counter-information we did so in order to make known and extend the whole dimension of armed struggle, and for this reason we chose to limit our criticism of the forms that struggle took. In reprinting it we are doing so with another aim: that of contributing to the struggle’s qualitative development. Now that the need for an armed attack against capital and the State has become widely accepted amongst comrades, it is time to work to extend the qualitative aspect that is spreading today using methods including sabotage against the structures of capital. This sabotage, usually carried out by small groups of comrades who have come together on the basis of affinity, is based on simple means that are available to anyone, and contains a strong element of creativity and joy in the knowledge that it is simple and effective to attack what is oppressing us directly, and that there is no need for endless documents of ideological justification for doing so. This does not mean that arms in the traditional sense of the word are no longer relevant or should be considered something to be used at some time far off in the future. It is important to reflect on all these problems in order to develop and strengthen an effective and intelligent revolutionary perspective.

Introduction

The key to the future is rebellion. As the multinationals spread their hold throughout the world, changing their hosts as the demands of (overall) profit direct them, the trade unions are showing themselves to be obsoleteas organisations of struggle, and actually direct participants in capitalism’s plan of restructuring. The advanced democratic State is ready to patronise inquests in any sphere: prison reform, ecological problems, debates on abortion, etc., in order to handle dissent and render it a manageable dynamic within the global project of social control, and some of the modern European States have shown themselves to be more astute in this prevision than others.

We would say that Italy, although similar to Britain at an economic level where it shares its place as the weakest of the advanced industrialised countries, has less sophisticated means at its disposal with which to control the growing strata of those pushed to the margins of the process of production. In other words, it is not that Italy is country in a more acute state of economic crisis than Britain, nor that, because here in Britain we do not read daily reports in our newspapers about the burning of factory manager’s cars, or the laming of journalists, that a situation of revolt at mass level does not also exist.

It is not the politicised minority who create revolt, but the existance of exploitation. What we can say is that there is not a clearly politicised minority in Britain who, drawing their direction from the mass, are seeking to give it a wider perspective, that of generalised rebellion. Many factors come into play in this situation in our opinion, not least the one already mentioned: the State’s capacity to recuperate marginal groups and give them a ‘socially fulilling’ task such as involvement in adventure playgrounds, local housing, organised squatting projects, etc., allowing them a certain autonomy of movement, and very little excess energy for such activities as revolution.

But we cannot blame the State for everything. We feel there exists a certain aristocratic tendency within the movement in Britain that denies the importance of illegal action at grass roots level, and still persists in seeing rebellion in terms of the workers’ movement. To this extent we feel the following information, however incomplete, is a contribution to forming a more realistic vision of where the struggle lies today.

The chronology that follows is an important element of counter-information concerning the situation of struggle in Italy. We do not claim this to be a fully representative picture. Many acts of rebellion never reach the press either because they are suppressed or because, taken on their individual merit they are too insignificant, as in the case of absenteeism, individual sabotage, and self-appropriation of goods. And it is in these areas more and more that the minority groups are finding the message that an intensification of the struggle is necessary. We hope, however, that something will emerge from this vast collection of data: that armed struggle in Italy today does not lie in the hands of a few professional militants, but that it is a way of being, a way of everyday life for hundreds of thousands of people, and that area is forever widening its field of attack.

The young people who have been pushed to the margins of Italian capitalism are creating their own theory with their actions. They have realised not only that there is nothing for them within the present structure, but also that they want nothing from it. They want to destroy it in every form it presents itself, and this involves not only institutions, but the people who make them function as such. Similar attitudes are also re-emerging among the employed workers within the context of the factory, following a period of relative stasis since the struggles of 1973. The result of this has been to create a situation of ideological crisis within the organised Left. On the one hand, the mass refusal of the system has not left the retrograde Left out of their radical critique; on the other these same groups are finding themselves confronted with a living situation of rebellion, leaving their abstract theories of economic cycles in the cold. They are faced with the pertinent question: What are we going to do? Unfortunately in many cases the answer has been one that has been found in the past by groups of a Stalinist character: that of policing the spontaneous movement.

But it is not possible to draw a simple line of demarcation between ‘authoritarian’ groups that develop in such and such a way, and ‘libertarian’ groups that automatically find the truth of the moment in the mass struggle. Any group or tendency that considers itself ‘carrier of truth’, and tries to impose its ideology on the situation, automatically takes the side of the counter-revolution, no matter how sweet the sound of their label is to our ears. This is not to say that such comrades are acting in bad faith. There is an almost traditional lack of clarity on certain problems within the anarchist movement, which carries many to jump to the (ideological) defence of tendencies which they know only through historical eulogy and have never put into practice in the reality in which they are living.

When the reality of the moment is that of rebellion at mass level, this ignorance and adhesion to to old models becomes particularly dangerous, as it can lead to trying to put a brake on the real move ment, and to a condemnation of comrades who are working in the practical field of clarification.

Clarity on the problem of armed intervention in the class struggle is therefore of primary importance. First, what exactly do we mean by the term ‘armed struggle’? Secondly, when is this form of intervention justifiable? Thirdly, what organisational form should this intervention take?

These are all questions which the anarchist movement in Italy has been forced to face in recent years, some groups more willingly than others. The theoretical articles that accompany the following chronology are therefore also a fruit of the present historical situation, and represent an attempt to go ahead towards what we feel is a direction where anarchists can be present in the struggle today.

Clearly what we have been able to portray in the following selection of data is limited and at times disordered. But one of the prime elements of rebellion is disorder. So let us begin to be wary of the order within our ranks, and look to the disorder around us.

Jean Weir 1979

Preface

In 1960 in Italy the favourable economic period comes to an end, and clashes begin in the streets. The government, presided over by the Christian Democrat Tambroni, tries to repress these clashes, but is defeated. Many demonstrators are killed by police in Genoa, Rome, Modena, Reggio Emilia and Catania.

In 1963 the Socialists enter the government. Repression resumes. The trades unions begin to negotiate with the bosses. They gradually cease to represent the workers. In the ‘Hot Autumn’ of 1969 the workers in the factories begin to organise autonomously, in the form of wildcat strikes, factory occupations, etc., and this situation has lasted, with varying periods of flux and reflux, to the present day.

A number of Marxist-Leninist organisations are born, for example Servire il Popolo. The anarchist movement tries to re-organise through the FAI (Italian Anarchist Federation).

1968 sees a general relaunching of political organisations following the struggles of May in France. In Italy it is the anarchists that show the greatest development, but the movement is full of contradictions and disillusions most of those who approach their organisations.

In 1969 Lotta Continua is born, and immediately after, Potere Operaio. It is the year of the piazza Fontana massacrea. The movement finds unity in the defence of the anarchist comrades who were framed and arrested.

In 1970 there is a revolt of the population of Reggio Calabria, but the fascists succeed in taking over the struggle due to the inefficiency of the comrades’ political organisations.

1969 sees the beginning of the revolts in the prisons, which continue until 1972. They re-emerge in 1973 and give life to the movement of imprisoned militants.

The first organisations to become a point of reference for clandestine struggle are born. Around 1970 the Gruppi di Azione Proletaria (GAP) are formed in Genoa. Potere Operaio supports them but Lotta Continua condemns them. It is here that the degeneration of the latter begins, ending up in a squalid gauchisme, to disappear completely as a movement shortly afterwards leaving only a tiny group around their daily paper.

During the same period Collettivo Metropolitano develope alongside the original Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades, of a Stalinist matrix, tinted with different shades of Leninism): Nap (Nuclei Armati Proletari) or Armed Proletarian Cells; Prima Linea or Front Line; Azione Rivoluzionaria or Revolutionary Action; Nuclei Combattenti Comunisti or Communist Combattent Cells, etc. These groups have in turn influenced the internal structure of the Red Brigades which, as far as one can understand from their latest strategic document, would now seem to be that of Leninist democratic centralism, i.e. groups that work separately, but in contact in the strategic sense. Each group elaborates its own analyses and plans of action, then submits them to the strategic command who study them and return them with relative observations. Individual groups can diverge from the strategic command and develop analyses and actions that might not have their approval. It is conceivable that the intensification of repression will force the Red Brigades to reconsider this structure and decide in favour of the closed model of the Stalinist type (supported by the old guard), or the more open model based on territorial evaluations.

It is the latter model that is now being applied by other groups, with varying levels of conviction and success. This breaking away from the rigid model of the Red Brigades can be seen in the actions of the NAP (and in their documents on theory and organisations), and in more recent analyses produced by the combatant organisation Prima Linea. Here the Leninism is more diluted and the autonomy of individual groups (and therefore security on a military level) appears to be greater.

The combatant organisation Azione Rivoluzionaria has attempted to develop theory and organisation in a libertarian direction, and has often made explicit references to anarchism.

Alongside this organisation, which is working in Italian territory in a more or less efficient and coordinated way, there exists an infinity of small groups and individual militants who, without referring to any specific organisation and often using made up names, have developed a phenomenon of constant guerilla activity, constituting a very interesting point of reference for the development of the armed confrontation in Italy.

The chronology that follows has been translated from the bimonthly review Anarchismo, and covers the period from March 1976, to November 1978.

Our role in the present conflict

We see the present historical situation as one that is characterised by a state of increasing illegality in which vast strata of society find themselves. Millions of unemployed young people and those on the margins of society are having to use what ever means are available in order to survive: thousands of women are obliged to have back street abortions; workers are practicing individual forms of sabotage, absenteeism and production boycotts; there are those in the system’s concentration camps (special prisons, psychiatric hospitals etc.) who are rebelling; proletarian squatters have not paid rent for years; ethnic communities are reaffirming their identities; ‘hooligans’ are crowding metropolitan ghettos; and many others.

The very fact that all these exploited are imposing their presence as living contradictions in the midst of capitalism’s process of totalitarian transformation, constitutes an inadmissible form of illegality for the State. The State’s response is to eliminate this in any way possible, using a whole arsenal of brutal repressive instruments in the attempt.

We see our task as that of attempting to transform this mass illegalitarianism into a situation of generalised rebellion that the State would no longer be able to absorb into the dialectic claiming better conditions/reform/control. There is only one way to do this: to demonstrate with actions that each one of us has an enemy that is identifiable in precise structures and personages, and that this enemy is not invulnerable. We must demonstrate through action that individual revolt can and must transform itself into collective insurrection, the only one capable of really freeing us from oppression. It now seems clear to us that this means going beyond the limiting logic of defense against State violence. It is instinctive for anyone who is subjected to a system of exploitation that tries to bend them to its will to defend themselves, and in fact everyone is trying to do so in one way or another. There are those who make make themselves the knowing collaborators of power, or who delegate this defense to others ‘more capable’.

We, who consider ourselves conscious revolutionaries, cannot limit ourselves to this. We must and will attack the State. Moreover, we are not attacking it to take possession of it in turn, but to destroy it in all its forms and realisations.

The creative essence of anarchism is present in this work of destruction: in striking and eliminating its hierarchical mechanisms right away, we are at the same time creating the premise for the libertarian management of society. We are not proposing a preconceived model of society, the justice of which we want to convince others, but want to put each person in the condition of managing his or her own actions directly, free the impositions of power and its servants.

We maintain that some instruments of struggle have been acquired not only and not so much by certain sectors of the revolutionury movement, but by the whole proletarian movement, which cannot in any way be reduced to one or more organisation or set of initials. We think that the instruments we have at our disposition should be addressed to this situation of struggle.

..At this point attention should be paid not to exchange the instrument with the aim to be attained. We must not let armed and illegal practice in struggle become an end in itself and valid as such, therefore unchangeable, infallible, self-sufficient and omnipotent. ...The practice of violent attack against the State that we are interested in developing is identifiable not only and not so much with the shooting in the legs of notorious Christian Democrats, but must permeate every aspect of our struggle, every field of intervention. For our attack to be effective we must be able to identify the structures and representative of power in every city, factory, school, quarter, barracks, institution, right to the relationships that exist among ourselves, and strike them with all the range of instruments and arms that our fantasy suggests.

This should prevent us from falling into Leninist-type mystification where, directing the attack towards a mythical ‘heart of the State’, they are actually preparing for the conquest of this heart in order to take it over, leaving all the old capillaries intact and spread throughout the whole country. Our task is also to deny the absurd equation (so convenient to the State) ‘armed struggle equals clandestinity’, which would lead us in to accepting the role of ‘professionals’ of armed struggle and the reduction of our activity and our very lives to the purely military aspect of struggle.

As anarchists our efforts should, on the contrary, be that of demonstrating that it is possible to go beyond these divisions into roles, against the formation of an elite of experts, and the false alternative (not by chance one that is desired and encouraged by the State), between creative people and pistoleros.

Diffused urban guerrilla

1976

February

23 Milan: A ‘Mass in defence of life’ is celebrated in the Duomo cathedral, attended by representatives of all the strata who are against abortion and the spreading of communism, from Nazi-fascists to the silent majority. The police attack a group of comrades trying to reach the cathedral. During the clash, eight luxury cars and the office of an Iranian airline company are set fire to.

March

12 Naples: The trial of the NAP members who rebelled in prison on the 3rd is due to take place. Hundreds of proletarians go to show their solidarity with the rebels. Violent clashes with the police develop. Three arrests are made.

13 Rome: While Lotta Continua and Avanguardia Operaia comrades are distributing leaflets outside a school concerning the wounding of a LC comrade by an MSI member, they are shot at by plain-clothes police. One comrade is wounded, nine are arrested.

13 Rozzano: At the Knipping engineering factory, noted for its antiworker reprisals and for enforcing a 60/70-hour week, about 60 workers break in through the gates, destroy adding machines, typewriters, windowpanes and machinery. The police arrive in force and 13 workers are held.

14 Rome: About 20 comrades come out in protest against the regime in Spain, which recently shot down seven proletarians in the street. They throw molotovs against the Spanish Embassy. Three policemen shoot indiscriminately into the group of young people running away, killing one of them, Luigi De Angelis.

17 Turin: Production is blocked all over Italy following sabotage at the FIAT factory in Turin. In Pomigliano the workers of Alfa Romeo and Aeritalia block the motorway. In Pozzuoli the workers of the Sofer, Olivetti and Icon paralyse the area. Similar events take place in Milan where factories are deserted, roads blocked, town halls besieged. There are actions also in Pordenone, Genoa, Bologna, Macerata, Bergamo, and Ivrea. The unions announce the preparation of a controlled strike in an attempt to recuperate the spontaneous rebellion. Everything now depends on the critical capacity of the workers. Those who insulted the union leaders, deriding their agreements with the entrepreneurs, and are refusing to sacrifice themselves ‘for the good of the nation’, must discover that they cannot obtain much within the framework of the existing society, but that they can take all, transforming the bases themselves. The bosses can’t pay more, but they can disappear.

18 Padova: Police brutally attack students in the University refectory where they were staging a sit-in. They break in without warning, shooting tear gas. Later in the day police shoot into a crowd outside the university building, wounding five people.

25 General Strike. Turin, Pavia, Varese, Novara Genoa, Padova, Florence, Naples and Potenza—clashes in front of the Town Halls. Road and rail blocks in Trento, Massa, Bari and Treviso.

26 Milan: Radical critique tunrs into practice. A pop concert put on by Socialists in the Paladino find out that warnings that such events would not be tolerated were serious. Hundreds of comrades, conscious that capitalism isn’t only in the factories, governments and police stations, but is in all the situations of our daily lives, the whole of our social existence, wreck the auditorium and break up the concert.

30 Naples: Unemployed workers, tired of demonstrations and broken promises, decide to make themselves heard. They attack the labour exchange and the central railway station, where they damage first class carriages. They build barricades in the city centre, take over buses and cars, and resist police onslaughts for over four hours. Offices and shops are devastated. 29 arrests are made.

May

1 Rome: A march organised by Autonomia Operaia is attacked by the police. Comrades defend themselves with stones and molotovs. Many are wounded. 24 arrests.

27 Treviso: Violent clashes break out between counter-demonstrators and police at an MSI meeting. Six comrades are arrested.

31 Florence: Eleven comrades are arrested during clashes with the police at a meeting held by MSI leader Almirante.

June

28 Rome: There are violent clashes when a huge crowd break away from the festival organised by Proletariato Giovanile (proletarian youth) in Parco Lambro. Thousands of ‘autonomists’ refuse to be controlled by the groups of politicos who wanted to impose their supremacy on participants at the festival, and violent clashes develop with the police. Those who are used to the idea of revolution as a point of general discussion, the well-behaved revolution, cannot understand that the proletarian revolution is disordered, wild, desecrating.

July

15 Milan: Judges condone the sacking of four workers for their political ideas at their appeal trial. The Carabinieri reply to the public’s manifestation of anger by attacking them, wounding many.

29 Ravenna: A festival organised by Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana is broken up. Many comrades, irritated by high prices, the squalid spectacle, the barbed wire, and the searches by CP activists, begin to protest nearby. Police fire into them, killing a comrade. Groups of comrades raise barricades, uproot road signs, plunder shops, and attack the town hall and the police headquarters.

September

13 Naples: A group of unemployed workers is attacked by police, who wound 30 and make numerous arrests.

October

8 Arese: Wildcat strike at Alfa Romeo factory against the government’s proposed tax increases and rise in cost of petrol. FIAT-OM workers block traffic in the main street. Other spontaneous actions take place in all the major towns and cities. The trade union bureaucrats are obliged to call a general strike.

November

December

7 Milan: The city has been in a state of siege since the early hours of the morning, with thousands of police and Carabinieri, as comrades plan to sabotage the first night of the Scala. Clashes go on for hours all over the centre of the city. Shops are devastated, buses and cars set fire to and barricades erected. 33 arrests. Two comrades are seriously wounded.

20 Cagliari: Over a thousand people demonstrate in protest at the killing of Wilson Spiga, aged 17. The boy had gone through red traffic lights and was shot by a plain-clothes policeman.

1977

January

14 Rome: The bookshop Maraldi is set fire to during a demonstration in protest against the fascist assembly in the city. Molotovs are also thrown against a Christian Democrat premises.

30 Naples: Police provoke comrades leaving a concert. 37 people are attacked, beaten up and arrested for no reason other than that they are left-wing militants.

February

2 Rome: A protest march against the killing of comrade Bellachioma by a fascist is attacked by machine gun fire. The first to fire were two plain-clothes policemen; others follow their example, wounding two people.

2 Turin: The fascist bookshop Fogola and a coffee bar, meeting place for fascists and heroin pushers, are set on fire.

3 Pisa: Shop belonging to a notorious fascist is wrecked. Police intervene, making one arrest.

16 all over Italy: universities are occupied. The occupations, which are related to the Malfatti reform, evolve into a general critique of all forms of alienation. They become the refusal of authority, bureaucrats, parties and trade unions.

18 Rome: Trade union leader (CGIL) Lama tries to hold a meeting in the occupied University. He and his gorillas are chased away by thousands of students who destroy the platform he is standing on. The CP calls for police intervention against students who wreck the University before leaving it in the hands of the forces of order.

March

4 Rome: Carabinieri in the corridors of the High Court are attacked by the public following the sentencing of Fabrizio Panzieri to nine years’ imprisonment for the events that led to the death of the fascist Mantakas. Many comrades are wounded by batons and tear gas.

5 Rome: Twenty thousand gather in protest against Panzieri’s sentence. After a moment of confusion they defend themselves, keeping ahead of the police for hours. Cars and buses are used as barricades. Seven comrades are arrested.

8 Palermo: Police attack a group of comrades who decided to reduce the ticket prices at a concert. Heavy clashes follow during which shots are fired into the crowd by police.

11 Bologna: Thousands of comrades come out into the streets following the killing of Lotta Continua comrade, Franco Lo Russo, at the university. A Christian Democrat bookshop is set on fire, shops are plundered, the Town Hall is attacked and the railway station is occupied. The Communist Party mayor calls in the army.

12 Rome, Bologna, Turin, Padova, Lecce, Messina, etc.: Armed comrades clash with police and attack party buildings and shops. The rage of thousands spreads through the streets, ignited by the assassination of Franco Lo Russo and Panzieri’s prison sentence, growing emargination and the squalid games of power. Armouries are plundered and pistols and guns distributed among demonstrators in Rome and Bologna. Fascist lairs, cars, buses, shops, restaurants and offices go up in flames.

18 Milan: Armed comrades break away from a march and enter the headquarters of the Marelli company. They take the wallets containing identity cards etc. from those present and set fire to the building. Ten minutes later more offices are attacked. At midday a commando take away pistols and ammunition from an armoury. At 1 pm the office of a firm noted for its exploitation of young people is attacked with molotovs.

April

1 Venice: Violent clashes between police and demonstrators trying to get into the Melibran theatre with self-reduced tickets.

21 Rome: Battle at the University between hundreds of comrades and police divisions. The ‘autonomists’ respond with arms. One policeman is killed, another wounded.

May

14 Milan: In a clash between ‘autonomists’ and police during a demonstration, a Carabinieri sergeant is shot in the forehead and dies a few days later.

19 Mestre: A group of comrades frees two feminists arrested by the police after smashing the window of a cinema to tear down a poster advertising a strip-tease show.

19: Despite the fact that the government has gone so far as to mobilise not only thousands of police, special squadrons and Carabinieri, but has also armed park attendants and forestry guards, demonstrations continue to take place in many cities. In Rome thousands of students participate in an assembly at the University, which is surrounded by the army. In Milan two bombs go off in an underground terminus, preventing trains from operating. The action is claimed by Prima Linea who write: ‘the sabotage in the underground on this working day and therefore day of profit for the bosses, is linked to other forms of mass illegality’. In Padova the University is crowded with comrades who give battle to the forces of order. 15 cars are burned, another dozen are overturned and used as barricades, and tanks are attacked with molotovs. In Genoa hundreds of young people occupy the streets and side streets of the city centre, have a pitched battle with the police, then retire into their ‘bases’.

June

10 Turin: While discussions with the unions continue, workers at the FIAT-Mirafiori get tired of waiting and damage an office building, hold a demonstration and walk out in short, disordered strikes.

30 Syracuse: 25 workers are charged with having blocked the road and the railway station in February following the poisoning of 18 men and women at the gates of the ISAB factory.

July

5 Rome: About a hundred shantytown dwellers come out to demonstrate about their living conditions in front of a municipal building where a session of councillors is taking place. They are attacked by police and two demonstrators are arrested.

10 Melilli: A few dozen men, women and children occupy the Town Hall. They want to be transferred to an area safely away from the poisonous discharge from industrial establishments around Syracuse.

15 Rome: Following a denunciation by Communist Party and Comunione e Liberazione members 400 police raid a students’ residence. The whole place is turned over in true Gestapo fashion. Seven students end up in prison.

15 Rome: Proletarians block the access to their area in protest against police raids where, under pretext of looking for a machine gun police had manhandled women and children. This kind of experience is not new to the area. Needless to say, no machine gun was found.

21 Milan: Two thousand paper mill workers threatened with redundancy erect roadblocks on the route to the airport. They also try to invade the runways but are prevented by police.

23 Cagliari: The Communist mayor and two Socialist Party officials are locked inside the town hall by 150 miners and sympathisers who have not received social security payments for the past 50 months, and because they have been fighting in vain for the past year to have vital repairs done to the mine where they work.

24 Ravenna: Workers of the Maraldi group who have not been paid for months block the port with a steel hull. In Varese more than 300 workers of the Siai Marchetti block the railway station. At the same time another 400 workers block the Sempione road in two places.

29 Naples: 140 dockers who have been laid off for the past two months put lorries in front of the gates thereby blocking port activity.

In Reggio Calabria 450 workers of the Andreae Knitwear company who have been laid off for months occupy the railway station for a number of hours.

September

7 Naples: Demonstrations of ESSO workers climb on to the roof of a depot and threaten to set fire to the tank. In Milan about a hundred families organised in a squatters’ committee have been occupying the first nine floors of the housing office for the past five days.

23 Naples: About 80 workers at the OMSA stocking factory occupy the railway lines for hours at a point where express trains have to pass. The protest is about the proposed closure of the factory.

29 Bolzano: The inhabitants of S. Giacomo area occupy one of the main streets of the city and hold it for 4 hours. The reason is that the street is dangerous for children, and recently four have been injured. In Florence, students, employed and unemployed workers squat three disused hotels. The action is directed against high rents and towards ‘having a house one can live in with dignity’.

30 Milan: During the night, news of the assassination of Walter Rossi reaches Milan. Huge demonstrations take place throughout the night, and a number of cars in the city are damaged.

October

1 Rome: Protests about the assassination of Rossi. A large spontaneous demonstration assembles. Three fascist lairs are burned. Cars and buses are used to block roads. Police repeatedly storm demonstrators with tear gas. In Bologna incidents break out during a march. A bar is burned and many cars are destroyed. A car showroom is set fire to during the night. In Florence the hotel occupation widens its perspective with the protest against the Rossi assassination. Some shops are damaged. In Catanzaro there are clashes between comrades and fascists, and against the police. In Brescia there are demonstrations with attacks on various symbols of power. A Luisa Spagnola shop is burned. In Padova two bars are burned and a bank is attacked. In Varese demonstration with molotovs against chosen targets. In Verona clashes with the police, molotovs against shops. In Milan a large demonstration, molotovs against a church and a cafe frequented by fascists.

3 Rome: Violent clashes with police etc. During the funeral of Walter Rossi, comrades rebel against the atmosphere of official mourning in the presence of representatives of the city authorities, and at a point where one of the fascist lairs is situated, the funeral becomes a demonstration. There are immediate clashes with the Carabinieri. A fascist meeting place is set fire to, as is an MSI party premises, a police car and a lorry.

Z Milan: Protest against rise in bus fares. A bus is taken over by comrades and covered in slogans. It is then used to lead the demo against fares.

9 Milan: Anarchist comrades occupy an underground railway station, locking the gates and letting passengers in free. Slogans are written on the walls and leaflets distributed against price increases and demanding a free service.

14 Rome: During an anti-fascist demonstration a large part of the march breaks away and attacks some of the key points of repression with molotovs. Shops are plundered and the Christian Democrat premises attacked. Some comrades picked up by the police are freed by others. Police find 187 abandoned molotov cocktails.

18 Rome: A demonstration heads for the Bonn Embassy after the Stammheim and Mogadishu massacres. Police block the road, so demonstrators go to the American Embassy instead. Police storm the march and two comrades are wounded.

20 Rome: Protests continue against Stammheim and Mogadishu. A proposed demonstration to the German consulate is averted by all the forces of power in the city. Violent clashes with police develop. 20 comrades are arrested and four policemen are wounded.

21 Milan: Barricades are erected in the city against police .

27 Palermo: Comrades block roads in the city centre. In Oristano the whole village of Samugneo is blocked by its 4,000 inhabitants because it lacks drains, water supply, roads, etc.

29 Milan: ATM trams and kiosks attacked in various underground stations in the continuing struggle against fares increases.

November

7 Vercelli: The workers of Montefibre occupy and hold the railway station for three hours in protest against redundancies and the closing of numerous companies in the area.

11 Bologna: German Christian Democrat, Gunter Muller and English Labour minister Thomas Urwin come to present the Flag of Honour of the Council of Europe to Andreotti in recognition of the development of European relations. Comrades occupy the Faculty of Architecture—they want to ask Muller about the killings at Stammheim; they want two comrades arrested in Bologna in March to be freed. Patrols of comrades cover the city. Clashes break out with police.

11 Milan: Clashes between comrades and police in the Sempione area during a protest march against the molotoving of a comrade’s house the night before. Police fire pistol shots and teargas. Comrades retaliate with molotovs, spanners, stones, catapults and anything else they can find.

12 Rome: In spite of the ban on demonstrations comrades begin to gather for the march in protest against the closing of the autonomous groups’ premises. More than four hours’ battle with the police ensue. 20 arrests are made. In Milan clashes break out for the same reason and a large group break into the police office at one of the railway stations.

12 Lecce: Clashes between comrades and police. One comrade is seriously injured in the legs.

15 National Strike: In Padova, Turin, Trento, Bologna, Bari, clashes between police helped by CGIL gorillas, and comrades who criticise the conservative and repressive role of the unions in every way. The new and old police attack the comrades, who respond with stones and molotovs.

16 Genoa: Inhabitants of the inland region hit by flooding the previous year are enraged by the government’s failure to provide aid. They occupy and block the Genoa/Alessandria motorway.

18 Milan: The workers of Unidal block a main boulevard in protest against the company’s plan to make 5,000 workers redundant.

29 Bari: Demonstrations and clashes with police in protest against the killing of young comrade Petrone the previous day. The Cisnal premises are assailed and destroyed. A TV cameramen films police firing wildly and one down on his knees taking careful aim. Other incidents in Bologna, Catania, L’Aquila and Milan.

December

8 Alghero: Spontaneous demonstration in protest against the police killing a 16 year old boy caught stealing a pair of shoes. Clashes with police. Many shop windows are smashed.

12 Rome: In spite of a ban, a demonstration takes place to commemorate the Piazza Fontana massacre (bomb placed by fascists and the Italian secret services in the Banca dell’Agricoltura in Milan in 1969 killing 27 people, which was used to strike the anarchist movement). Molotovs against FIAT dealers, and the SIP. Many cars are burned, windows and traffic lights smashed.

16 Genoa: During clashes in the city centre between police and demonstrators, premises of Catholic Association are attacked.

17 Milan: During an anti-fascist demonstration many comrades manage to enter the headquarters of the Italian Monarchist Association, and cause damage of more than 50 million lire.

1978

January

17: 3,000 workers left without wages or holiday pay by a contracting firm organise a series of road blocks and then go to the company building where they cause damage of over 200 million lire.

30 Rome: Police bar a protest demonstration against the exile of comrades to island prisons. All the same, comrades come out into the streets and the morning is spent fighting off the police. 79 people are arrested and later released. 7 policemen wounded.

February

10 Rome: Violent clashes develop when police try to break up a demonstration against plans to exile comrades. 14 arrests are made.

6 Cagliari: Hard clashes at the RAI (television company) between police and demonstrators protesting against the arrest of six comrades who lived in the area. They are accused of belonging to an armed organisation.

9 Cagliari: During the demonstration called by the trade unions against redundancies at the Ruminaca company, groups of demonstrators smash shop windows and the RAI-TV van where the incidents were being filmed.

19 Tivoli: A CP meeting is disrupted by groups of comrades protesting against the decision to exile revolutionary militants.

25 Rome: During a demonstration for the ‘political 6’ (struggle in the secondary schools against examinations, where pupils demand the automatic passage to high school, which normally requires a minimum 60 per cent pass), a Christian Democrat and MSI premises are attacked with molotovs. 32 comrades are arrested. Many attacks on Christian democrat premises and police stations take place during the night.

March

7 Naples: a demonstration of unemployed workers paralyses the eastern part of the city. In the evening sellers of contraband goods come out into the streets with the slogan ‘if you want to stop smuggling, you’ll have to give us jobs’.

21 Cagliari: Workers at the firm Selpa, in struggle for the past four years to save their jobs, occupy the villa belonging to two SIR directors for four hours.

22 Milan: During the funeral of Fausto and Lorenzo (see “Victims of Repression”), anarchist comrades try to attack the premises of trade union delegates and fights break out with the confederal macebearers barricaded inside.

April

18 Cosenza: At the end of a trade union meeting to organise a general strike at provincial level, police storm workers who try to break into the city buildings. Clashes spread out over the whole main square, resulting in many people being wounded.

21 Bologna: Clashes between police and demonstrators. Three comrades are arrested.

June

5 Rome: Clashes break out between between police and groups of comrades who were contesting a Democrazia Nazionale meeting. A Comunione e Liberazione bookshop is attacked with molotovs.

July

11 Rome: A group of homeless people blow up the office of the city assessor, dedicating the action to the CP bureaucrat.

August

16 Capo Rizzuto Island: Anti-terrorist operation invades holiday camp La Comune searching for wanted ‘terrorists’. Clashes break out between hundreds of young campers and police. Not a shadow of a terrorist to be found.

October

20 Florence: Demonstration of 10,000 hospital workers from all over the Tuscany region, and this self-managed movement spreads to all other Italian cities. The army is called in in some cities.

23 Rome: Police break into a hospital and break up a nurses’ meeting. Clashes break out with injuries on both sides, and six arrests are made.

30 Naples: Clashes between police and unemployed workers from the firm Hidropress which had put up road blocks in the city.

PRISON REVOLTS

1976

March

5 Naples: Poggioreale prison: 9 prisoners, all belonging to the NAP, attempt to escape. Discovered after taking a warder hostage, they barricade themselves in the ‘transit’ pavilion. They only come out after a communique has been read on the radio and television, and they are promised transfers to other prisons.

May

6 Turin: Bars are found to be sawn through in the new prison and an escape bid by three Red Brigades members and two other prisoners is foiled.

August

12 Catania: Incidents in the juvenile prison. Wild firing of machine guns against young prisoners protesting about conditions and food, wounds a woman carrying child in the street outside.

14 Turin: In the new prison prisoners refuse to return to their cells after the exercise period. Guards open fire to intimidate them. Prisoners in Poggioreale also protest in solidarity and demand the immediate application of prison reforms.

16 Nuoro: Rebellion in the prison where prisoners are demanding the suspension of a punishment meted out to one of their comrades. Furniture and fittings are set fire to. The prison is devastated. The revolt is quelled after hours of fighting which results in 20 prisoners being wounded.

18 Milan, Rimini, Augusta, Salerno, Rome: Prisoners demonstrate against the prison regime. In Perugia prisoners forcibly refuse to be transferred to other prisons.

20 Lecce: Mass escape from the prison where eleven prisoners immobilise guards and oblige them to open the prison gates. Four are captured a few hours later. The others remain in liberty despite massive police operations throughout the area.

26 Bologna: Escape attempt by three comrades is foiled—three hacksaws are confiscated.

30 S. Vittore: A comrade is put in solitary confinement and other inmates of his wing call for his release. This is refused and a rooftop protest follows, ending only when he is returned to his cell.

31 Turin: All the prisoners go on to the roof, demanding that the new prison reforms be put into effect. After 50 hours the police intervene in force. The prisoners defend themselves with all possible means, and outside the prison groups of sympathisers clash with police.

September

15 Reggio Calabria: Police are called in with dogs to quell a revolt in the prison. One prisoner, a NAP comrade, is savaged by one of the dogs.

30 Campobasso: after their escape attempt is discovered, four prisoners barricade themselves and two warders in a cell. They only come out 24 hours later after a press conference where they reveal the inhuman conditions in the prison.

October

6 Catania: Revolt in the prison, resulting in the destruction of a third of it. After police regain control two prisoners are found dead with knife wounds, and two others are wounded.

8 Favignana: a judge is taken hostage by a prisoner who explains that his action is against ‘brutal State repression aimed at the physical elimination of combatants inside the prison’.

November

25 Milan, S. Vittore: a rooftop demonstration by 250 prisoners is attacked by police at dawn. A whole wing is devastated.

December

10 Palermo: Ucciardone prison: a revolt breaks out and goes on for 22 hours. The prisoners are demanding the Governor’s dismissal. Police use oxyacetylene cutting gear to break through barriers. Violent close-combat clashes follow, resulting in many wounded on both sides.

13 Florence: 15 prisoners at the Murate prison take one officer and six warders hostage. They only give in after they been granted transfers to prisons of their choice.

1977

January

1 Piacenza: Revolt in the prison. Police intervene immediately with machine guns. One prisoner is killed before the revolt is suppressed.

2 Treviso: 13 prisoners take machine guns from guards and escape.

3 Venice: Prisoners in a wing of the S. Maggiore prison clash with guards and police, resulting in the destruction of the whole wing.

5 Fossombrone: Six prisoners try to escape, four succeed, but the other two are caught at the gate. Both are brutally beaten up by guards. One suffers a cerebral haemorrhage and dies.

22 Possuoli: Maria Pia Vianali and Franca Salerno, accused of being members of the NAP are sprung from prison. The NAP members on trial in Naples claim the organisation’s responsibility in the courtroom.

February

21 Saluzzo: An escape attempt by three comrades is spotted by guards who open fire, wounding them. Two are recaptured immediately, the other takes refuge in a house which is then surrounded by police. To guarantee his safety, others in the prison take a warder and three fascist prisoners hostage. They are only released when all involved are granted transfers.

23 Cuneo: 6 prisoners escape over rooftops.

April

11 Perugia: After a failed escape attempt, 14 prisoners barricade themselves in a cell along with 4 warders. They come out after being granted transfers to other prisons.

18 Viterbo: 4 hours of revolt. Prisoners barricade themselves in the prison offices, smash windows, doors and desks. Some of the comrades manage to knock down a wall and get reinforcements from another wing.

May

7 Milan: 160 prisoners at S. Vittore refuse to return to their cells after the exercise period. They make their way to the roof and four companies of riot police are brought in. For two hours they fire into the air and throw tear gas canisters.

8 Ravenna: 5 prisoners escape. Pianosa (island prison) 3 prisoners escape. Two are caught by coastguards, the other escapes in an inflatable canoe.

June

2 Forli: Nine prisoners celebrate the day of the Republic by escaping from prison.

4 Island of Pianosa: Five prisoners escape from the island prison in a rubber dinghy.

9 Spoleto: A revolt breaks out in the prison: some Red Brigades and NAP comrades, along with a few other prisoners, take 12 warders hostage during the exercise period.

July

5: Five conscientious objectors in a military prison where they are doing their ‘national service’ begin a hunger strike to denounce the climate of repression put into effect by the military hierarchy over the past few months.

27 Turin: A revolt holds out for three hours in the juvenile prison Ferranti Aporti.

September

13 Rome: Families and friends of prisoners in the super-prisons, Favignana, Cuneo, Trani, Asinara and Fossombrone present a formal complaint to the Minister of Justice and to the prison directors and warders, about the inhuman treatment meted out in these concentration camps.

November

15 Turin: A group of prisoners in Le Nuove prison refuse to return to their cells at the end of the exercise period. The protest is about the non-functioning of the sewage system in the isolation cells where about 120 prisoners are living amid shit.

December

12 Turin: For the past three days 300 prisoners in the Nuove prison have been on hunger strike in protest against the super-prisons, demanding the demilitarisation of the prison guards, and ‘more humane sentences’.

16 Nuoro: Two prisoners escape from the penal colony Mamone.

1978

January

20 Florence: A group of five people manage to enter the Murate prison with the intention of freeing comrades accused of belonging to the Unita Combattente Comuniste. The action fails as a passer by recognises the van parked outside the prison as being one that had been stolen the previous day. Crossfire follows on the arrival of a police flying squad, and one PS officer is killed, another injured.

February

5 Parma: Three prisoners attempt to escape. When they are discovered, they hold the prison director and some screws hostage, and only free them after they have been granted transfers to other prisons.

27 Arezzo: Prisoners in the local prison begin a hunger strike in solidarity with those doing the same in Padova.

March

26 Milan: Five prisoners escape from the juvenile prison Beccaria after taking two guards hostage.

July

Salerno: Four prisoners take eight guards hostage in an attempt to regain their freedom. In the end they have to content themselves with transfers to other prisons.

August

19 Asinara: Revolt in the super-prison. Five prisoners destroy the visiting room and distribute leaflets to prisoners. Prisoners on their exercise period are attacked by guards, and heavy clashes follow. Many prisoners are severely beaten up, and one anarchist comrade, Horst Fantazzini*, who has on previous occasions made miraculous recoveries from police bullets, was taken to hospital in a semi-comatose state.

23 Pavia: Three prisoners slash their wrists and wound themselves in various parts of their bodies in protest against the judge’s refusal to let them have visits from their families.

29 Milan: Three eighteen-year-old prisoners escape from the juvenile prison, taking a warder with them until they reach the outside gates. Two are arrested the following day.

September

9 Cuneo: Comrade Giuliano Isa destroys 5 interphones in the visiting hall in the local super-prison. A similar action is carried out by 5 comrades in the concentration camp of Favignana.

12 Novara: The visiting room of the superprison is damaged during the night.

15 Messina: The prisoners in the female maximum-security wing destroy the interphones in the visiting room, and claim the action in a communique where they put forward demands concerning internal and external isolation.

20 Latina: The presumed NAP militant Silvano Innocenti escapes in a motorboat from the island of Ponza where he was in forced residence.

23 Asinara: The prisoners in the Fornelli section break down the walls dividing the cells during a revolt organised to demand the abolition of the super-prisons. The wing is evacuated and the prisoners transferred to other parts of the island.

24 Genoa: Protest in the Marassi prison, where prisoners refuse to go back into their cells after the exercise period. Carabinieri and PS divisions are called in to intervene.

25 Nuoro: A prisoner escapes from the penal colony Mamone.

October

10 Cagliari: A prisoner serving four years for robbery escapes from the prison camp. 13: Six young prisoners who were not due to be released until 1981, escape from borstal.

November

17 Favignana: Incidents inside the super-prison where six prisoners rebelled against guards who were trying to force them to re-enter their cells.

Prisons, courts and the legal hierarchy

1976

January

28 Rome: Six pistol shots are fired at appeal Court Counsellor Pietro Margariti. The action is claimed by the nucleus Sergio Romeo. The NAP issue a bulletin: ‘The counsellor of the Appeal Court, Pietro Margariti, is responsible for the ill-treatment, persecution and transfers that comrade prisoners are subjected to. He is responsible for the massacre of the proletarian prisoners in Rebibbia during the revolt of August 1975, and transfers to the most disgusting prisons in Italy, as well as beatings, provocations, etc...’

April

22 Milan: A Red Brigades/NAP cell enter the offices of the regional prison inspectorate and take away various papers. A leaflet is left: ‘prisons are the final link in the chain of anti-proletarian repression...’

May

5: Four pistol shots are fired at deputy Procurator of the Republic, Paolino dell’Anno. The action is claimed by the NAP.

June

8 Genoa: The Procurator General, Francesco Coco, and his escort of two Carabinieri are killed. The action is claimed by the Red Brigades in a leaflet and in a declaration by some of their members in the court of Turin.

November

1 Florence: The car belonging to the deputy Procurator of the Republic and Public Prosecutor in the trial against the NAP is burned.

1977

January

28 Rome: A High Court judge’s car is burned. The action is claimed by NAP.

March

30 Pisa: Alberto Mammoli, the prison doctor at the time of the death of anarchist comrade Franco Serantini who was, along with others, responsible for his death, is seriously wounded with three pistol shots. Action claimed by Azione Rivoluzionaria.

April

28 Turin: A Red Brigades cell kill lawyer Fulvio Croce, president of Turin Law Society. The action takes place on the eve of the Red Brigades’ trial with the aim of having it postponed.

May

4 Brescia: Prison doctor’s house set on fire with petrol bombs.

16 Ercolano: Two explosive devices go off against a villa used as a training school for prison personnel.

May

19 Bologna: Deputy Procurator of the Republic’s car burned.

June

19 Turin: An architect’s studio raided and documents relative to the construction of the new prison Valette are removed. The contents of the documents are to be revealed by the comrades.

30 Spoleto: The Red Brigades explode a bomb against the prison walls.

July

17 Florence: A series of explosions cause considerable damage to the new prison under construction at Sollicciano. Action claimed by an armed nucleus of Azione Riuoluzionaria.

17 Leghorn: The engine of a crane and builders’ huts on the site of the prison under construction in via Padula are bombed. This is claimed by Azione Rivoluzionaria.

November

19 Turin: The regional Inspectorate of Prison Sentences is bombed.

December:

Turin: Prima Linea claim the bombing carried out with 400 sticks of explosive against the new prison under construction. To trick the guards the comrades arrive dressed as policemen, then immobilise them.

Sassari: Five explosives are placed in front of the house of deputy procurator of the Republic, but the fuse goes out due to a technical fault.

January

2 Palermo: Car of local High Court judge burned.

30 Spoleto: Eight charges of TNT cause another half billion lire damage to foundations of the new prison Maiano.

February

7 Vibo Valentia: Pistol shots are fired against the home of the prison director.

14 Rome: The judge involved in prison construction and under whose direction the special prisons were built, is brought to justice by the Red Brigades.

March

5 Turin: Bomb attack, claimed in telephone call by Red Brigades, against home of lawyer Manni, president of the Law Society. The attack takes place three days before the commencement of the supertrial of the ‘historic nucleus’ of the Red Brigades.

27 Nuoro: Van used for transporting prisoners is set fire to by group Barbagia Rossa.

April

Catania: Two hooded men wound the chief prison warden in the legs.

11 Turin: A Red Brigades cell ambush a prison guard outside his home. The guard retaliates, wounding one of the comrades, then is killed by the other members of the cell.

19 Milan: Assistant-governor of San Vittore prison is killed by the Walter Alesia column of the Red Brigades.

May

6 Novara: The prison doctor is wounded by 2 pistol shots by a group Proletari armati per il comunismo.

24 Rome: Bomb against the offices of the Ministry of Justice.

24 Cagliari: The car belonging to a warder at Buoncammino prison is destroyed by fire.

June

3 Nuoro: Bombs against cars of two prison warders.

6 Udine: Proletari armati per il comunismo shoot and kill the chief warder of the local prison.

July

17 Tivoli: A bomb explodes against the door of the juvenile prison Tommaseo.

August

14 Tropea: An explosive charge is placed in front of the local prison, blowing up a warder’s car.

19 Bergamo: Pistol shots and machine gun fire from a car strike a prison sentinel and a passing police car.

October

10 Rome: Judge Girolamo Tartaglione, responsible for the persecution of many comrades through his position at the Ministry of Justice, is himself brought to justice by a Red Brigades cell.

11 Naples: Alfredo Paolella, university lecturer and collaborator in the plan for restructuring of prisons as well as being director of the Centre for Criminological Observation at Poggioreale prison, is brought to justice by Prima Linea.

November

8 Patrica: A commando of Formazione Comuniste Combattenti ambush the chief procurator of Frosinone, Calvosi and his police escort. One of the comrades Roberto Capone, is killed during the action.

13 Milan: The health inspector of San Vittore prison is shot in the legs by Reparti comunisti d’attacco.

15 Florence: Prison doctor of the Murate escapes unhurt when his car explodes on turning the ignition key. Action claimed by Red Brigades.

17 Turin: Squadre armate proletarie break into the office of the architect responsible for transformation of La Marmora police station into a bunker for holding Red Brigades members awaiting trial. They fire four shots into his arms and legs.

Expropriation

1976

March

15 Milan: A milk lorry is attacked and milk is given away free.

28 Monte Cassino: Proletarian shopping inside the FIAT Cassino. The canteen stores are plundered to the cry of ‘workers, help yourselves’, while calculators and typewriters are destroyed. The scene moves to the office buildings, where the same thing happens. While union officials and factory bosses are carrying out an on the spot investigation, the stores are given a final clearout, putting the cost of damage at over 15 million lire.

May

31 Noale (Venice): Robbery carried out by the Red Brigades in a branch of the Savings Bank.

June

14 Rome: A meat wholesaler is kidnapped by Unita combattente comuniste who ask for large quantities of prime meat to be delivered to 71 butchers in 23 areas, to be sold at the political price of 1,500 lire (about 90 pence) per kilo. Unfortunately he was found by police before the conditions were met.

15 Pegli: The NAP claim a robbery in a telephone call: ‘This morning we expropriated, in the name of the proletariat, 5 million lire from the Banca Popolare di Novara.

37 Milan: In Parco Lambra during the festival of Proletariato Giovanile, comrades plunder a bar. The same thing happens to two lorry loads of food. The young proletariat are no longer willing to fatten up speculators, no matter how they disguise themselves.

July

27 Ravenna: Requisition from a supermarket: fruit, clothing and groceries.

September

15 Brescia: Four people rob the Credito Agrario bank of 50 million lire. As they are leaving they declare that they belong to the Red Brigades.

26 Milan: Expropriation in the elegant confectioners Motta. Nearly all the goods displayed are taken away.

October

21 Milan: Expropriation in one of the most famous bookshops in the city. Comrades empty the till, and take away books to the value of half a million lire.

November

7 Milan: Three thousand comrades break into 5 luxury cinemas in the city and force the managers to reduce the tickets to 500 lire each.

30 Venice: The Red Brigades rob a bank in the city, taking away 80 million lire.

December

3 Milan: About a hundred people loot a supermarket, taking away goods to the value of several million lire.

1977

February

22 Naples: Following a trade union open meeting, many luxury shops are looted.

March

13 Catanzaro: Proletarian expropriation in a local bank, yielding 40 million lire.

28 Rome: A bread van is hijacked by young armed people who distribute the bread among passersby.

April

3 Genoa: Piero Costa, armaments entrepreneur kidnapped by the Red Brigades 80 days before, is released on payment of one and a half billion lire.

June

8 Bologna: Trial begins against 22 students and a 66 year old woman accused of stealing napkins, tablecloths, cutlery, food, etc., from a restaurant frequented by the local bourgeoisie and a common haunt for Communist Party ...business lunches.

September

25 Bologna: Expropriations in many shops during the three days’ meeting on Repression.

November

15 Milan: Demonstration followed by proletarian expropriation in a store in Corso Italia.

1978

February

10 Prato: During an attempted expropriation three comrades of Lotta Armata per il Comunismo end up having to kill a notary, who was evidently more attached to money than his life.

19 Milan: 12 furs are stolen from the cloakroom of a private club. They are worth a total of 60 million lire. A note is found in their place addressed to the ‘gracious attention of the bourgeoisie’, and signed Nucleo Anarchici Proletari.

April

17 Bologna: Comrades break into an opticians and an electrodomestic appliances store and take away many of the goods.

May

27 Bologna: Ronde Proletarie di Combattimento empty the till in a shoe shop and then set fire to it, leaving written on the walls: ‘Fire to those who finance the MSI’.

July

20 Castiglione del Lago: A group of young people gathered for the Umbria-jazz concerts, plunder a Coop supermarket.

October

19 Padova: The University refectory is set fire to following recent episodes of self-reduction in food prices.

Victims of repression

1976 March 14 Rome: Police make chase on a group of about twenty comrades following a molotov attack on the Spanish Embassy in protest against the shooting of seven people in the streets of Spain. At one point three policemen open fire on a group of young people spotted running in a part of the city far away from the Embassy. They say they fired into the air with the aim of intimidating them, but the body of comrade Luigi De Angelis, killed by a bullet in the calf, tells another story.

April

7 Monticelli: Six molotovs are thrown against the entrance to the Ministry of Justice following the confirmation of the nine years’ sentence meted out to anarchist comrade Giovanni Marini for having defended himself against an attack by fascists, killing one of them. Police guards begin a wild chase, and at least two hundred yards from the Ministry a young comrade is shot in the neck. The usual cry of legitimate defence is hurled by the assassins, but no gun was found in the hand of Mario Salvi, nor did it appear in any of the police photographs.

28 Milan: Gaetano Amoroso, Luigi Spera and Carlo Palma, three members of the Antifascist Committee, are knifed by a group of fascists. The three are taken to hospital in serious condition, and Gaetano Amoroso dies three days later.

May .

28 Sezze Romano: Following a MSI meeting, a fascist gang led by the honourable Saccucci and SID inspector Troccia, fire repeatedly all over the village. A young CP member is killed and a Lotta Continua militant injured. The police could have arrested Saccucci at the time of the shooting, but he is allowed to leave the country.

1977

January

12 Cagliari: A fifteen-year-old boy is killed by police. He was trying to steal a car and was slaughtered by a volley of machine gun fire—which as always in the case of proletarian victims, happened ‘by accident’.

March

11 Bologna: After clashes at the University between comrades and Comunione e Liberazione members carabinieri open fire, killing Francesco Lo Russo, Lotta continua militant. The reaction of thousands of proletarians is immediate.

17 Turin: Student Bruno Cecchetti is killed by machine gun fire by a carabinieri squadron as he is walking home. They say the shooting was an accident when their first claim, that Cecchetti had threatened them with a pistol, could not be substantiated.

April

28 Agrigento: A 46 year old man, Vincenzio Ponzio, ‘in prison for insulting a public official’ is found hanged in his cell.

May

12 Rome: The Government bans the Radicals’ demonstration in the city and call in police. They shoot into the crowd and kill a 19 year old girl, Giorgiana Masi.

June

8 Milan: A 27 year old worker, Orazio Gilardoni, falls from the roof of one of the railway station buildings, killing himself. Another ‘accident’ at work.

16 Reggio Emilia: Another death on the exploitation front. A 68 year old worker, Aldo Tonelli, was cleaning an irrigation canal along with other workmates, when he was buried under soil and died.

24 Milan: a 39 year old woman from Calabria married to an unemployed immigrant worker, dies of malnutrition.

July

11 Cassino: Seven workers are injured following a gas explosion at work.

15 Latina: A worker falls to his death from an unsteady ladder at the Fulgor Cavi Cable Company. He remains unattended for hours before his body is found. One of the company managers tries to conceal the fact that the ladder was faulty.

18 Alessandria: 53 year old peasant Giuseppe Squarise was fitting cement piping in a hole 15 feet deep when he was knocked down by falling soil and killed.

22 Milan: Prima linea distribute a leaflet claiming an arms expropriation carried out by three of their members on the 19th, when one comrade, Romano Tognini, ‘Valerio’ was killed.

22 MIilan: A 32 year old father of three children dies after 9 hours of agony following an explosion in the SECI factory Quarto Oggiaro.

26 La Spezia: A 44 year old worker Silvano Petacco, dies as a result of having been bitten by a rat while cleaning a drain a few days before.

30 Gela: Explosion during the night in the ANIC factory killing one worker, aged 28. Two others, aged 24 and 39, die a few day later.

August

3 Udine: Ennio Mian, aged 17, kills himself because he cannot find work. 7 Naples: Luigi Muioi, aged 25 and father of three dies of an electric shock while working a machine in a rubber factory.

8 Trieste: A 37 year old worker employed in the maintenance of an incinerator falls, hitting his head on the floor of the furnace combustion chamber and dies instantly.

14 Naples: Coast guard captain gives orders to open fire on a Greek ship because it does not stop at the customs. Result: one dead, a 25 year old sailor. Reason for shooting? Suspected smuggling.

14 Roviga: The warehouse of a fireworks factory explodes causing the death of one of the workers.

17 Pescara: William Marinelli, aged 16, is killed by police. He had stolen a car.

19 Bergamo: After 15 years of torture and being transported from one asylum to another, Palmira Valle, aged 29, is found dead tied to a bed in a psychiatric hospital. Death was due to suffocation by the sheet she was tied up with.

21 Florence: Another death at work due to electric shock. This time the victim was aged 32 and worked on the railways.

22 Naples: Seven directors at the Montefibre factory are charged at an inquest concerning the deaths of three workers.

22 Cavarzere: A young soldier doing military service is shot dead by a guard on duty while entering the barracks because he did not give the password.

23 Cagliari: A nurse hangs herself for fear of being made redundant. She had been of sick for a few months and had received a letter from the hospital management telling her of the probability of a suspension of work.

28 Caltanissetta: The number of deaths due to typhoid among the poor people of the village reaches 143.

28 Cuneo: Two workers are killed when the boiler they are working on explodes.

30 Rome: Walter Rossi, a Lotta Continua militant, is killed by fascists while giving out leaflets condemning the shooting of Elena Paccinelli by four fascists the previous Thursday. A petrol pump attendant at a nearby filling station was also wounded.

October

4 Alghero: An 88 year old man throws himself from rocks 45 feet high. He killed himself because, as he had no daughters left, his sons were going to put him into a State run old people’s home.

4 L’Aquila: Another woman employed at the ACE factory dies of cancer. She was 42 years old, mother of two children. Two others who died recently were aged 34 and 42. All three workers had been in contact with toxic substances that had been proved to be cancerogenous.

13 Naples: A 32 year old man dies of a benign brain tumour in the psychiatric hospital Nocera Inferiore. Although he had shown symptoms of a brain tumour over the past ten years, the doctors at the asylum where he was locked up had been filling him up with anti-epileptic drugs, and only sent him to hospital when he was already in a coma.

15 Chieti: Another victim of work. A 44 year old worker falls from the seventh floor of a building he was demolishing. Five more children find themselves fatherless.

21 Trento: A woodman dies, crushed by a tree-trunk. Another workman dies after being struck by a huge steel telegraph cable.

November

4: Three more workers die for the bosses: In Ascoli Piceno, a 27 year old worker at Elettro-carbonium is crushed by a huge electrode of amorphous carbon. In Troina, two workers, one aged 32, the other 14, are crushed by a lift while working on a building site. The fist dies, the second is seriously injured.

8 Rome: A young car thief is sentenced to death by the city police who give chase to him and shoot and kill him.

15 Porto Marghera, Venice: Three workers at the Montedison plant are victims of an accident at work. They are seriously burned by flames from a gas tank.

15 Milan: A tank full of petrol explodes, killing one person and leaving two seriously wounded.

21 November: An unknown man dies of cold. He was found dead from exposure in his home—the street.

24 Turin: Capital punishment for 22 year old Antonio Torchia. He had a record for theft and robbery, and ended up being shot in the back by a Carabinieri patrol.

28 Bari: Two young communists, Benedetto Petrone and Francesco Intrano, are attacked by fascists. Petrone is killed, Intrano seriously wounded.

December

4 Olgiate: Another execution at the hands of the Carabinieri. A young man accused of fraud did not stop at a halt signal and the executioner shot him in the back and neck, killing him.

8 Alghero: A 16-year-old boy is killed by private cops while stealing a pair of shoes in a boutique. An immediate demonstration of protest is organised by comrades, resulting in clashes with the police and the smashing of shop windows.

8 Brindisi: Three workers killed at work and 52 injured, at the Montedison plant.

8 Milan: Clarice Anceschi, aged 93, commits suicide by throwing herself from a fourth floor window. She was an internee in a hospice for old people.

11 Catania: Private guard at an orange grove kills a 30-year-old man for stealing a box of oranges.

11 Lodi: Another life to the bosses: a 20 year old builder falls to his death through a roof.

25 Sassari: A 21-year-old prisoner dies. The official version is that he banged his head against the wall while playing around with his cellmates.

26 Milan: Mauro Larghi, a comrade of Autonomia Operaia arrested 10 days ago for disarming a night guard, dies as the result of a beating at the time of his arrest.

6 Florence: A 68 year old prisoner kills himself by throwing himself from a third floor window.

15 Ravenna: a 73 year old man, arrested for stealing a bar of chocolate, hangs himself in an isolation cell four hours after his arrest.

17 Afragola: A police patrol kill Giovanni D’Ambra aged 20 with machine gun fire while he is escaping from prison.

25 Lucca: Two workers are killed and five are injured when the machine they are testing explodes.

February

21 Padova: Sergio Secchi, aged 26 and prisoner in the Castello prison, kills himself using a camping gas cannister.

March

7 Venice: A thirty-three year old porter picked up by the police for being drunk hangs himself in a police cell.

10 Rome: A 38 year old prisoner sentenced for theft hangs himself in his cell. A similar episode takes place in Vercelli prison where a 56-year-old prisoner kills himself.

17 San Donato Milanese: A 17 year old boy is shot in the back by police at a road block.

18 Milan: Two young anarchist comrades, Lorenzo Ianucci and Fausto Tinelli, are shot dead in mysterious circumstances. Police try to construct a confused story of drugs around the case, but the political motivations for the murders are all too obvious.

April

7 Bolzano: A man is arrested because he cheered on hearing of Moro’s death.

9 Imperia: A 17-year-old boy dies crushed against a lorry when he tries to avoid a road block as he was driving a car without a licence.

11 Naples: A 22-year-old prisoner commits suicide by hanging himself from the bars of his cell.

11 Torreannunziata: A 14-year-old boy is mortally wounded by machine gun fire from carabinieri at a road block.

May

4 Bologna: In a shoot-out with police following a robbery, 21-year-old revolutionary militant Roberto Rigobello is killed by machine gun fire. Marco Tirabovi is arrested.

9 Palermo: Democrazia Proletaria comrade Giuseppe Impastato, is assassinated by the local mafia against whom he had been fighting a courageous battle. They exploded a charge of TNT against him in such a way as to confuse police reports with talk of suicide or a failed bomb attack.

12 Venice: Following an armed robbery the police kill Silvano Maestrello, known for his many escapes. He had managed to regain his freedom at least seven times.

June

3 Grosseto: A 33-year-old Maroccan is killed by a volley of machine gun fire in obscure circumstances inside the Carabinieri barracks.

7 Cagliari: A prisoner waiting to be transferred from a prison asylum hangs himself in his cell.

11 Venice: A policeman kills a 19-year-old who was loitering near a car.

29 Milan: A 33-year-old prisoner hangs himself in his cell.

July

31 Bergamo: A young man aged 21 hangs himself in a Carabinieri barracks cell after being arrested for attempted theft.

August

Naples: A 17-year-old prisoner awaiting trial for stealing 50,000 lire (about 25 pounds), hangs himself in the bathroom of the juvenile prison where he is being held.

31 Saluzzo: A 45-year-old prisoner arrested the previous day for shoplifting, hangs himself.

September

19 Genova: A toxic sulphurous cloud kills three workers in a tannery in a few seconds, poisons many others and spreads over the whole area. The lorry driver who made a mistake while unloading his tank is in prison; the factory bosses on the other hand are walking around freely.

October

6 Ravenna: A 20-year-old heroin addict dies in prison.

November

Florence: A 22-year-old woman dies following a back street abortion.

Sweat labour

1977

March

24 Milan: A ‘patrol against sweat labour’ breaks into the porters’ cooperative Dusmet. Before leaving they devastate the premises and take away money and various objects.

April

2: An armed commando of 5 enter the office of the firm Maros. They devastate the office and take away 2 million lire.

29 Milan: An armed nucleus breaks into the depot of a door-to-door cosmetics firm. They leave a leaflet: ‘...Sweat labour is the main way chosen by multinational capitalism today to realise its two basic objectives: to obtain increased profits by remodelling productivity, and reconstructing a global command of the proletariat through the constriction of wage slavery’.

May

10 Milan: An ‘armed band of young proletarians’ breaks into the office of Rizzoli publishers. Faces covered by balaclavas and arms in hand, they close the employees and clients in one room and set up incendiary devices in the editor’s office that explode simultaneously. On the walls: ‘the dens of sweat labour will be closed by fire’.

June

30 Milan: Two bombs against youth employment offices. A leaflet is left by Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari denouncing the exploitation of the young work force.

July

4 Porto Marghera: A fire breaks out in a factory that produces lenses, causing 600 million lire damage. Claimed jointly by the Red Brigades/NAP.

1978

January

February

4 La Spezia: ‘Luisa Spagnoli extracts her profits by speculating on the backs of proletarian prisoners. This is why one of her lairs has been closed’. This is a leaflet left by Azione Rivoluzionaria at the site of attack on one of the Luisa Spagnoli chain of dress shops in Cagliari: Lotta Femminista claim a fire at the Rinascente superstore.

18 Vicenza: Organizzazione operaia per il comunismo claim an action against a porters’ cooperative, placing it in the struggle against sweat labour.

March

12 Varese: The new depot of Bassani Ticino a firm that has got rich through the exploitation of prisoners, is completely destroyed in a fire claimed by Unita combattenti comuniste.

May

12 Zane: A group of comrades from Autonomia Operaia devastate the offices of a contracting firm that exploits sweat labour.

November

21 Turin: Squadre Armate Combattente break into the offices of an agency for domestic work, immobilise the employees and the women in charge, leaving on the walls: ‘Attack the dens of sweat labour’.

Politicians and party headquarters

1976

March

6 Milan: Two armed groups break into the publishers Jaca Books and the editorial offices of Supermilano, both linked to Comunione e Liberazione. Both places are devastated.

15 Milan: During a demonstration in protest against the imprisonment of four comrades three fascist dens are firebombed.

20 Milan: Molotovs thrown against a Christian Democrat party premises and a car parked outside a church.

27 Rome: Seven people break into the cultural centre run by Christian Democrats and Comunione e Liberazione. The centre is wrecked. Action claimed by Lotta Armata per il Comunismo.

31 Milan: A nucleus of comrades breaks into a pizzeria where the hard core fascists of the area congregate, and where some of the thugs’ actions are coordinated. The pizzeria is completely destroyed and some of its regular customers wounded.

April

4 Turin: A fascist meeting place, Bar Sergio, is devastated.

25 Salerno: Comrades break into the Augusto theatre where the Communist Party and Christian Democrats are together celebrating the anniversary of the Resistance. The Christian Democrats are manhandled and their flag set fire to.

30 Rome: Library of ancient Spanish History is set fire to. Claimed by nucleus defining itself International Brigade Paeredes Manot. A leaflet left in a nearby telephone box reads: ‘The Francoist den Villalbani has been destroyed. Disguised as a Spanish library, this place concealed many liason activities between the neo-fascist organisations of central Europe, a shunting point for the clandestine activities of the many Italian fascists involved in the Borghese coup, and the bombings of Avanguardia Nazionale’.

June

6 Rome: The cinema Barberini is set fire to prior to a fascist meeting.

9 Padova: Just before an MSI meeting is due to take place a group of comrades wreck and set fire to a fascist lair and destroy it completely.

17 Milan: Comrades close the electoral campaign. After an MSI meeting a lorry belonging to the firm that had put up the stage where the fascists spoke was burned. The same thing happens to the Nazi group meeting place Alternativa, and the MSI rooms in corso Genova. The celebration ends with the burning of a pizzeria that was the fascist haunt in the area.

September

27 Padova: Three people break into the premises of Mondo Libero, a fascist newspaper. Those present are tied up, and the three take away various documents. The emblem of the Red Brigades is drawn on the wall.

October

2 Milan: After knocking down the wall with a pick-axe, comrades break into the fascist premises on viale Murillo. They completely destroy the offices and burn furniture and documents in the street.

January

10 Rome: EUR Congress Palace become a target for explosions that go off in the entrance hall, stopping an MSI meeting from taking place. Action claimed by ‘new partisans’.

24 Turin: Three Christian Democrats’ cars burned.

February

6 Rome: Gruppo guerriglieri Maria Cagol carry out a series of attacks including the destruction of a car belonging to a notorious fascist.

10 Bologna: Seven molotovs are thrown against the premises of Comunione e Liberazione, more against a Christian Democrat premises. Later in the day a Christian Democrat and a fascist meeting place are set fire to.

13 Bari: MSI and Christian Democrat premises set fire to, as well as the car of a fascist district councillor.

22 Naples: Fascist meeting place Contro Corrente is set fire to after a trades union meeting.

May

27 Milan: Three cars belonging to Comunione e Liberazione members burned by ‘a group of comrades’.

June

20 Cagliari: A group of comrades from the ‘autonomists’ beat up a few of the CP reactionaries in front of the University.

30 Rome: The houses of two fascists are the targets of molotovs thrown during the night. Minister of the treasury’s car also goes up in flames. A leaflet claiming these actions is signed ‘young proletarians’.

July

11 Genoa: One of the most important figures among the local Christian Democrats is shot in the arms and legs by the Red Brigades.

11 Rome: Marlo Perlini of Comunione e Liberazione receives three pistol shots in the legs from the Red Brigades.

13 Turin: A Christian Democrat councillor is shot in the legs by the Red Brigades.

October

5 Nuoro: During the night the town hall is broken into and an ass, stolen from a neighbouring courtyard, is tied to the mayor’s desk.

13 Rome: A group of comrades break into a Christian Democrat party premises and take away files and other papers.

23 Milan: A Christian Democrat councillor is lamed by the Red Brigades. Action is claimed in the name of the RAF comrades.

24 Trieste: Attacks against Christian Democrat rooms and against the home of a fascist councillor, claimed by Ronda proletaria.

25 Turin: Another Christian Democrat worthy is lamed by the Red Brigades.

26 Massa: Christian Democrat official’s car burned.

26 Rome: Cars belonging to various Christian Democrats in the city burned.

27 Genoa: Another five Christian Democrats’ cars burned.

November

2 Rome: A Christian Democrat director and supporter of the iron fist against ‘terrorism’ is killed by thirteen shots from the Red Briades

1978

January

1 Lamezia Terme: Car of a MSI provincial councillor goes up in flames. A leaflet signed Red Brigades claims the action.

3 Padova: Organizzazione operaia per il comunismo attack seven Christian Democrat premises in protest against the sentences of two comrades in Padova courts.

5 Cagliari: A molotov explodes against a Christian Democrat premises.

7 Rome: Many comrades have been attacked and wounded by fascists who are, as always, protected by the police. This evening, a group of comrades bring to justice two fascist thugs who were leaving their lair, arms in hand, to begin new attacks. A third fascist is killed by Carabinieri during crossfire in front of the same premises. The execution of the two fascists is claimed by Nuclei armati per il contropotere territoriale.

8 Bari: Attempts made to burn two MSI premises.

10 Luras: Christian Democrat mayor’s car explodes.

10 Trieste: Two molotovs explode against provincial Christian Democrat headquarters. One comrade is arrested but others manage to free him.

10 Messina: A molotov is thrown against the Christian Democrat premises.

14 Milan: Incendiary bomb against the Don Minzoni cultural centre.

14 San Benedetto del Trento: A bar belonging to a Christian Democrat councillor is set on fire.

16 Rome: at 9.30 am, in via Fani, a Red Brigades column attack the car escort of Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro. They eliminate five policemen and kidnap the Christian Democrat president. The same morning parliament concedes the first government that includes Communist Party votes.

April

7 Rome: During the night TNT explosions take place in front of two Christian Democrat premises.

9 Rome: At 13.30, a few yards from the Christian Democrat and Communist Party offices in via Caetani, the body of Aldo Moro is found in the boot of a Renault car, following a telephone communication. He had been shot eleven times. The unions call another general strike. The family refuse a State funeral.

10 Santa Sofia: A comrade is arrested following a bomb attack against a Christian Democrat office.

10 Trapani: The flat belonging to Christian Democrat party chairman of public works is burned.

20 Padova: Socialist Party councillor and university director is wounded by gun shots fired by two comrades of Fronte combattente comunista.

26 Bologna: Nuclei sconvolti per la sovversione urbana explode two bombs against the home of the mayor Zangheri.

27 Naples: A group of ‘organised unemployed workers’ occupy the party offices of the Communist Party in protest against the politics of the Left junta.

COMUNIONE E LIBERAZIONE is a catholic fascist organisation, predominantly composed of students and young catholics. Although it is not a party, its organisational form is that of the tightly centralised Stalinist type. DEMOCRAZIA CRISTIANA (Christian Democrats) is a Centre party of catholic inspiration. It confirmed its place as the major party in Italy in the recent elections.

PARTITO COMUNISTA (Communist Party) is the largest Communist Party in Western Europe. In March 1978 their votes were conceded by parliament to support the Christian Democrats in government, and today they have surpassed the latter in their policies on repression. This party is a vital instrument for Italian capitalism’s transition to a social democratic model. However, they showed considerable losses at the recent elections.

MSI — MOVIMENTO SOCIALE ITALIANO Right-wing party who have carried on the fascist tradition.

UIL: UNIONE ITALIANA LAVORATORI (Italian Workers’ Union), smallest of the three largest federations, dominated by the Socialists.

CISNAL: 4th Confederation after the CGIL, CISL and UIL. Has a publicly acclaimed affinity with the neo-fascist national party, the MSI.

Trades unions

1976

March

17 Turin: At the FIAT sabotage carried out by the workers in the paint department (see No. 1) is disclaimed by the union bureaucrats as the work of of ‘provocateurs’. The area secretary of the CGIL has to face 10,000 workers shouting insults and calling for direct action.

April

26 Cassino: FIAT workers refuse to wait until 1978 to have half an hour for lunch, and take it directly. They reduce the working day by half an hour themselves and ‘if the bus driver refuses to leave, we will take his place, if no one is able to drive the bus, we’ll tear it apart’.

May

3 Turin: Wrath against the unions’ contract. Workers at the FIAT Rivalta paint shop and Mirafiori leave work half an hour early.

5 Turin: The union bureaucrat who has come to speak of the agreement reached at Mirafiori and Trentin is assailed with oranges and bolts. Only 500–600 workers out of 20,000 turn up at the meeting.

June

4 Cassino: Following the wounding of a FIAT manager an unsigned leaflet was found: ‘with today’s warning we want to remind those personages of a few facts that the workers have all carefully noted: Pettinotti (the victim) controls the network of fascists of the CISNAL, always active in spying on comrades who are in the front line of the struggle...’

November

16 Sassari: Two comrades are arrested, accused of throwing molotovs against the CISNAL offices.

1977

June

30 Palermo: Intersind offices broken into by four comrades. They lock the employees in the toilet and place a bomb which destroys the offices. Action claimed by Unitk combattenti comunisti.

December

24 Sanremo: During an anti-Christmas demonstration, comrades devastate the headquarters of the CISNAL, throwing furniture and documents into the street. 15 people are arrested.

October17: Wild strikes in the Italian hospitals against the unions’ management of the contract, and putting forward their own claims. In Naples, Florence, Palermo and Milan the hospital workers have been fighting for days. The army is brought in to the Polyclinico in Rome to serve patients’ meals.

November

30 Milan: a group of workers of the Comitato di lotta dell’Unidal (autonomous group in the Motta Allemagna cake factory) break into a meeting between trade union leaders and directors, beat up a CGIL bureaucrat and one of the factory directors. The police intervene and workers in all departments come out in strike.

Factories and the industrial hierarchy

1976

March

11 Turin: Sabotage by workers at the FIAT where they mix up the paint colours, causing damage and loss of time. Attempts by union bureaucrats to pass this off a simple ‘mistake’ are publicly denounced by the workers.

26 Bergamo: Three people shoot Philco Bosch manager outside the factory and leave a communique denouncing his part in restructuring the factory— sacking militants and increasing exploitation. Signed Lotta armata per il comunismo.

April

2 Crescenzago: Chief security guard of Magneti Marelli shot in the legs for spying on and denouncing workers. Communique left by an armed communist commando.

3 Turin: A workshop at the FIAT Mirafiori is completely destroyed by fire. ‘An armed nucleus has destroyed some of the profit of Agnelli’s imperialist multinational. This is only the beginning’ is the message phoned to ANSA news agency.

8 Milan: A building of the Motta cake factory is destroyed by fire.

10 Turin: Two Standa warehouses and a large clothing depot burned.

13 Turin: Eight shots fired at a FIAT foreman, claimed by Red Brigades who also destroy the cars belonging to two others.

14 Rivalta: Fire in the FIAT tyre depot. The action is criticised by the Red Brigades who issue a statement saying they are against the destruction of goods.

May

10 Rome: Explosion in front of German travel agency, linked to the murder of Ulrike Meinhof in her prison cell.

July

20 Rome: Syrian airline offices destroyed by explosion: link to massacres carried out by that government in the Lebanon.

September

11 Rome: Brazilian airline company bombed. Molotovs thrown at the American Honeywell offices and a Israeli travel agency.

11 Turin: Two branches of Banca Commerciale attacked by Combattenti armati per il comunismo in protest against their involvement in Pinochet regime.

22 Rome: Two explosions: one damages shop of Iranian with CIA connections, the other is against Westinghouse, American industrial group.

26 Rome: Zionist and American objectives struck before and after demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian resistance in the Lebanon. Explosion destroys goods depot owned by Israeli ex-ambassador to Italy; Molotovs against American Joint; two Banks of America branches assailed by molotovs and a goods depot of ITT affiliate Avis is bombed.

October

1 Milan: Large group of comrades enter and devastate South African Consulate.

6 Turin: Italian International Computers broken into by three armed men and a woman. They set fire to offices after getting staff to leave premises.

15 Milan: Workers of Motta cake factory who face 2,800 redundancies, chase director in charge of restructuring out of the factory.

1977

January

20 Genoa: Two local industrialists’ cars destroyed by fire, claimed by the Red Brigades.

29 Milan: Electroware domestic appliances firm broken into and devastated by molotovs. Action claimed by ‘group of young proletarians’ in protest against exploitation of the young work force for cheap labour.

21 Milan: Computer destroyed by a Gruppo combattente comuniste cell in University Bocconi. The University is one of the centres most advanced in the preparation of anti-worker techniques.

22 Turin: FIAT foreman shot in the legs by Red Brigades commando.

30 Turin: At 2am a bomb explodes at the Facis clothing factory, at 5 a.m. another explodes in front of Michelin, next, the employment offices and the telephone exchange, and finally, and incendiary device is thrown against the heating plant of a factory infamous for its exploitation of women and children in the production of biro pens.

30 Padova: RTR television company and Pinton Industrial Electror is hit by molotovs and cars are set fire to.

30 Genoa: The kidnappers of the president of FIAT-France demand 25 billion lira, and the liberation of political prisoners.

May

16 Palermo: Dynamite attack against the SIP (telephone co.) offices.

18 Bologna: Vice-president of confederation of industry finds his car burnt to the ground.

18 Alcamo: At a FIAT dealers two transporters and a number of car are damaged.

July

29 Milan: Swissair offices badly damaged by an explosion. A leaflet is left, signed by Prima Linea, denouncing that country’s hospitality to the multinationals of exploitation and death, and the holding of comrade Petra Krause in prison.

August

2 Turin: Ipca dye factory notorious for the number of its workers who have died of cancer of the bladder, is damaged by two bombs signed ‘Armed nucleus for revolutionary action’.

6 Milan: The offices of ANIC are hit by an explosion claimed by ‘revolutionary proletarian bands’, following the deaths of two workers.

September

19 Milan: In an action of propaganda against the rising cost of living, a libertarian group give out leaflets and smash ticket machines on 77 buses. Passengers support the action.

22 Turin: Fire at FIAT Mirafiori claimed by workers’ cell Tonino Micciche, a comrade from Lotta Continua was killed there by a night guard some time ago.

25 Bologna: On the last night of a massive ‘meeting against repression’, where around 50,000 comrades have assembled from all over Italy, an explosion damages the window of a Volkswagen showroom. Action claimed by Azione Rivoluzionaria.

October

18 Turin: Prima Linea raid the Association of Industrial Director, and take away documents and files. They explode two molotovs before leaving.

18 Florence: Prima Linea break into the area union offices and take away files on employees.

20: In protest against the assassinations in Stammheim and Mogadishu, there are bomb attacks against German car dealers and TIR lorries in many cities.

21 Trento: On the walls ‘10, 100, 1,000 Schleyers’; Barricades in Milan against the police; molotovs in Vicenza against German car dealer. Attacks in various other cities.

22 Milan, Diano Marina, Imperia, Bolzano, Cagliari, Sassari, Reggic Emilia, Naples: these are some of the places where actions continue against German car showrooms and other agencies.

22 Milan: Molotovs against the Mercedes belonging the consul, and against the Consulate of Ecuador to draw attention to the dozens and dozens of workers assassinated by the army of that country. ATM and TWA also hit.

23 Brescia: A policeman is wounded trying to save a Mercedes dealer from an attack. Other actions against German interests continue in other cities.

24 Palermo: During demonstrations of protest against Stammheim and Mogadishu, a Volkwagen showroom and a Sicilian cement works are bombed.

25: another day of actions against German interests in many cities.

26 Rome: Opel, General Motors and Siemans dealers bombed during the night.

1978

January

4 Cassino: Head of private police at the FIAT brought to justice by Operaie armate per il comunismo: Another of Agnelli’s police is wounded at the same time. The unions call the usual strike against terrorism—2.35 per cent adhere, i.e. 30 workers out of 1,500.

9 Taranto: Sabotage at Italsider. Traces of explosive material found in the trucks that link the centre to the port.

10 Turin: Unita comuniste combattenti explode a bomb outside the house of second in charge of security guards of the FIAT-OM. A Red Brigades commando wound a foreman at the FIAT-Mirafiori in the legs and arms.

10 Zingonia: Squadre operaie armate set fire to the goods depot of Comet domestic appliances ‘against political sackings and restructuring at the Philco Ritalco’.

10 Imperia: 12 molotovs thrown against the luxurious villa belonging to a local industrialist.

13 Rome: The Red Brigades kneecap the area manger of the SIP. 24 Milan: Chief of trade union relations at the SIT-Siemens wounded by Red Brigades.

24 Lambrate: General manager of Nuova Innocenti pulls a gun on a group of workers who break into his office. The men disarm him and teach him a lesson in spite of efforts of members of the Factory Council to protect him.

28 Turin: Workers occupying the Accarini factory and who have been evicted by the police before, move to direct action. Pistol shots ring out against a foreman’s house during the night. Next day one of the managers is encircled and only freed after having been taught a lesson.

30 Turin: Fire at the CEAT (tyres) causing millions of lira damage.

31 Padova: ‘Workers’ organisation for communism’ claim many explosions in the area against factories and the homes of industrialists.

31 Milan: Squadre armate operaie shoot the owner of a print shop in the legs. He was responsible for shooting a trade unionist 5 years before.

February

1 Bologna: Squadre armate operaie claim in attack against the home of a small industrialist.

1 Sassari: Millions of lire damage to a FIAT subsidiary as a result of four molotovs.

2 Cosenza: A group Lotta armata per il comunismo break into the Savings Bank computer centre and detonate an explosive charge causing irreparable damage to machines and tape archives.

16 Milan: Reparti operai combattenti comunisti wound an Alfa Romeo executive in the legs. He was responsible for the employment of invalid and handicapped employees.

16 Rome: ‘To attack State organisms means to attack the State’ — Ronde proletarie in leaflet claiming an explosion against the technical office of the SIP (telephone).

19 Turin: Plastic explosive attack against FIAT agent.

21 Turin: A paper bomb explodes inside the FIAT at Carmagnola.

24 Trieste: A group of four comrades raid the industrial confederation headquarters and a property agency. ‘A house belongs to who lives in it’.

27 Naples: 10 molotovs thrown against the offices of Iran Air offices.

March

1 Turin: An electricity cable supplying the FIAT Mirafiori is hit by two explosive charges.

1 Milan: SPED electronic centre is put out of use by four comrades who pour sulphuric acid over the machines.

May

1 Padova: Gruppo comunista organizzato claim three bombings in the province, one against an industrialist’s car, one at a goods depot and one at the home of a fascist.

3 Padova: Sqttadre comuniste per il contropotere burn the car belonging to president of ITI Gramsci and Communist Party Official.

3 Florence: Prima Linea destroy large number of computers at Data Management.

4 Milan: Squadre Armate Operaie claim a heavy explosion destroying an Alfa transporter and 35 cars. One of the manager’s cars is also destroyed. The Red Brigades wound one of the SIT Siemens managers with 9 pistol shots.

27 Trento: the Ulrike Meinhof Brigade of Nuclei comunisti combattenti set fire to a wood depot belonging to the president of the Commercialist’s Union.

August

27 Taranto: Nuclei combattenti comunisti claim sabotage at Italsider where the control panel of a furnace is set fire to, causing 2 billion lire’s worth of damage. 15 days before, three workers died in the same building.

September

8 Rome: Ronde comuniste di contropotere blow up the headquarters of three building societies responsible for the desperate housing situation in the city.

28 Turin: Production manager in the paint department of Lancia is killed by a Red Brigades column.

28 Milan: Azione Rivoluzionari blow up a tramline and an ENEL (electricity) cable supplying the tram network, to give an extra day’s holiday ‘to the wage slaves who get up each morning to go their places of exploitation’.

29 Milan: Director of Alfa Romeo is taken by surprise by a Red Brigades commando. They tie him to the inside of his garage, photograph him and fire four shots into his legs.

October

23 Milan: Sabotage to the telephone lines caused by corrosive acid cuts off more than 2,000 telephone in the Rogoredo (residential) area.

25 Rome: An Opel car showroom is bombed.

26 Rome: Explosions against a Volkswagen showroom and an electricity cable.

27 Padova: Proletari comunisti organizzati claim 8 explosions: against the State housing department, the SIP telephone exchange, headquarters of Alleanza insurance company, the town hall, university president’s home, that of a SIP director, and the Christian Democrat vice deputy mayor. At the same time 2,000 telephones are cut off.

28 Milan: Nuclei Armati Antisfratto cause an explosion against the offices of RAS insurance, who own dozens of flats.

November

1 Bergamo: Proletarie Combattenti per il comunismo claim explosions against two boutiques in the city.

State offices

1976

March

26 Bergamo: Violent clashes outside the Town Hall which is then devastated and burned. This is the day of the general strike called by the unions.

July

13 Milan: A group of comrades break into the offices of the Medical Association. Employees and doctors are tied up and various documents and gold coins removed. Claimed by Volante Rossa. September

11 Rome: Che Guevera Internationalist Brigade claim 3 actions to commemorate the Chilean coup d’etat: explosion at the Chilean Embassy; the American Library, and the Brazilian Airline Varig. October

14 Ancona: Federation of Light Industry visited by the Red Brigades. Five armed people tie up those present and take away documents.

November

11 Florence: Students devastate the university office responsible for the bad conditions in the refectory. Four comrades are arrested after being singled out by members of the ‘communist’ party.

December

6 Milan: Prima Linea raid the association for medical insurance and take away money and files.

1977

January

6 Rome: At midnight ten incendiary bombs are thrown into the car park of the Ministry for Home Affairs.

March

29 Rome: General manager of Poligrafico di Stato (State printing agency) is shot in the legs.

May

18 Genoa: Explosive device found under car belonging belonging to head gynecologist of San Martino hospital.

19 Seveso: Three young people break into the health inspector’s office. They search the premises, then shoot the doctor in charge in the legs. He is accused, even by the unions, of being too lenient in the case concerning the industrial poisoning in the area.

19 Bologna: Employment exchange invaded by young people who write slogans against sweat labour all over the walls.

June

2 Turin: Prima Linea try to paralyse the traffic of the province with actions against a bus station and crucial points of the urban network to stop people from going to work on an abolished public holiday.

6 Rome: Red Brigades burn registers and dossiers in the school Duca d’Aosta.

24 Milan: An armed cell of Prima Linea shoot doctor Roberto Anzalone as he is leaving his consulting rooms. They explain in a leaflet that he is responsible, in his position as president of health service doctors’ association and secretary of the medical association, for attacks against the workers.

July

13 Trieste: About 100 feminist comrades occupy the Regional Health Department in protest about the way in which the abortion law is being applied.

20 Rome: Two kilos of explosive blow up the door of the Town Hall.

21 Rome: A ‘communist student group for the settling of accounts’ try to wound the University rector by shooting him, but miss their target.

22 Turin: Squadre di donne comuniste (a feminist cell) set fire to and destroy the car belonging to a gynecologist who refuses to do abortions.

27 Montano: Squadre armate proletarie break into the Town Hall. They immobilise the employees, expropriate 300,000 lire, and explode a molotov on the premises.

August

7 Rimini: A group of ‘young organised proletarians’ throw two molotovs against a Franciscan monastery.

September

1 Turin: A group of ‘communist students’ set fire to the entrance to the school Volta, in protest against streaming.

October

27 Venice: Housing Department offices bombed along with four other State institutes in the town. Proletari comunisti organizzati.

27 Rovigo: Pistol shots and molotovs against the home of the head of the municipal transport company, and the director of the local housing department.

November

5 Rome: Two women throw molotovs against an obstetrician’s study.

14 Florence: Many bombings during the night — against the finance offices, the housing department, the town planning office, Director of Studies, and other similar attacks in Pisa and Prato. Claimed in telephone call by Squadre proletarie di combattimento.

1978

January

23 Bologna: A group of comrades break into the Chamber of Commerce, the office of the rector of the University, and the headquarters of the RAI (Radio/television company) as part of the campaign concerning the trial for the events of March.

29 Rome: Bomb explodes at Medical Association premises.

February

7 Venice: Nuclei armati comunisti raid and set fire to the study of the administrative director of the University.

Milan: The gates of the municipal tram depot are blown up as part of the struggle against the increase in fares the previous month.

March

3 Turin: Incendiary attack against the headquarters of the Geographical Institute (an army office which compiles maps).

4 Turin: Bomb attack at the home of Manni, lawyer and president of the Law Society. Claimed by Red Brigades three days before the opening of the trial of their ‘historic nucleus’ (Curcio, Franceschini, etc.)

8 Bologna: An Armed Feminist Nucleus place a bomb at a registrar’s office.

13 Rome: Lotta armata per il potere proletaria cause an explosion at the headquarters of the Medical Association, resulting in millions of lire damage.

17 Florence: Four comrades raid the offices of the Housing Department Claimed by Azione Proletaria. Two molotovs are thrown against the court buildings.

April

10 Turin: Squadre proletarie di combattimento break into the consulting rooms of a gynaecologist accused by the feminist movement of being responsible for the death of one of his patients, chain him to the radiator and shoot him in the legs.

19 Florence: Commercial Union headquarters broken into by Prima Linea who set fire to the premises.

25 Trento: Volante Rossa set fire to the car belonging to head gynaecologist of the Santa Chiara hospital.

May

8 Milan: The medical director of INAM (medical insurance association) is shot in the legs by Proletari armati per il comunismo.

June

17 Trento: Attack against the Director of Education with a bomb made from a camping gas container.

July

1 Rome: Police clear part of a hospital occupied by a group of comrades who carried out legal abortions impossible in all the other Roman hospitals because of the ‘Barons’. (In Italy each hospital department is under the direction of a university professor in that field. This has given rise to an almost feudal situation, hence the term baroni).

2 Bologna: ‘Robin Hood Nucleus for Ecological Action’ free the birds imprisoned in the cages of the park Villa Chigi.

3 Imperia: President of the Medical Association’s study is set fire to.

9 Padova: Proletari comunisti claim a bomb against the Faculty of Political Science, closed by the president in reply to the struggle against selection.

Heroin pushers

1978

June

18 Rome: A notorious fascist belonging to the infamous Di Luia gang and boss of the heroin trade, is killed with three pistol shots. The action is claimed in a telephone call to Lotta Continua by Movimento proletaria di resistenza offensivo Nucleo Antieroina. (Anti-heroin nucleus of the Movement of Proletarian Resistance).

November

1 Milan: Proletari Armati claim the killing of Giampiero Grandi, shopkeeper, belonging to an organisation that controls heroin traffic and the exploitation of prostitutes. Bomb at Mental Hygiene Centre in via Pancrazi, and a bar in via Degli Apuli.

6 Milan: Bomb in a bar in via Arsia, centre of heroin traffic in that area.

27 Rome: Guerriglia comnunista ambush two heroin pushers; one is killed, the other wounded.

We claim the execution of the heroin pusher and mafioso, Grandi Giampiero, and the bombings at the Centre for Mental Hygiene in via Pancrazi, the pushers’ lair of via Degli Apuli on 1.11.78, and the bar in via Arsia, centre of the heroin traffic in the Quarto Oggiaro area, on 6.11.78.

Communists are not generally against ‘drug addicts’ like the bourgeoisie and the forces of repression: they are against those who speculate on their skins. We know that heroin is an answer, although illusory and disgusting, to a real need for change in the quality of life. Heroin is the most beautiful of the false consumer products that capital has invented to mystify the reality of proletarian needs. To struggle against heroin pushers is for every heroin addict to struggle against those who seem to be giving him the only possibility of life and survival.

It wouldn’t be habit-forming if daily life weren’t shit. State and God, Work and Family, are deviating ideologies that serve to uphold and hide an unnatural, lousy, criminal social order which denies in all its relationships the legitimacy of the natural needs of man, and upsets his relationship with reality. Destruction of nature (Seveso is only a tiny example of capitalist criminality), destruction of man as a natural being.

What capital cannot exploit it destroys.

With the circulation of heroin and psychotropic drugs they are planning the destruction of entire generations. They destroy as the only way to evaluate the desire to live, to be well, to express the creativity which the young proletarians are the carriers of, in terms of profit.

Instead of the forced suicides of the Chilean type, capital is launching voluntary suicide on the market for common use.

Heroin in itself is a false problem: it is a consumer product invented to suffocate the real need to change the quality of life, the real problem is the existence of the capitalist social organisation, because it bends towards death and the destruction of all that is human. The drug addict becomes known and measured for the quantity of heroin he consumes, for the average number of thefts he commits, and not for being a human being who, like others, is trying to affirm his own right to existence. To speak of heroin gratuitously is useless if one doesn’t begin to organise the proletarian strength to destroy the present state of affairs at the same time. The proletarian revolution, the surpassing of the existing social order, is not a project to be defined in abstract, but begins in practice with the destruction of capitalist society.

All those who support the liberalisation of the heroin market without posing the problem of how to change the reality of proletarian life in the capitalist metropoli, are stupid opportunists.

The armed strength of the proletariat must aim to impose itself as a concrete element capable of self-determining social reality in its complexity.

Build proletarian unity in the struggle, establish and develop the political legitimacy of the revolutionaries among the proletariat, extend the space for building the real power of the proletariat armed.

The armed strength of the proletariat in struggle is the only practical instrument of liberation from capitalist dominion.

Heroin pushing, the exploitation of prostitution, the fencing of small thefts, are activities which correspond only to the law of capitalist accumulation. Communists are not against illegal activity that damages the bourgeois strata: they are against all those vile activities of proletarian exploitation. It is right to rob banks, to ransom the bourgeois strata, but enough opportunism! Whoever gets rich through the injury of other proletarians will be considered a vile traitor!

Vile is the pusher who earns his living through the deaths of others. Vile is the pimp who uses womens’ bodies as an instrument for his own profit. Vile is the fence who exploits the sweat labour of young proletarians when they are constrained to steal a stereo or spare tyres. All those, especially at a big level, are friends of the police and the carabinieri and enemies of the proletariat. They buy the freedom to continue their vile activities in exchange for tip-offs and prison for other proletarians. The carabinieri use them as informers and they use the carabinieri to get rid of those who are in their way. So the operations of the drug squad against the pushers are in the end nothing other than operations controlling the market to the benefit of those who really centralise the heroin commerce.

Whoever breaks proletarian unity, exploits and robs from the proletariat themselves, must the considered vile enemy and traitor: no solidarity in their divisions for subversive work among all the proletarians, for the destruction of capitalist society.

Expel the enemies of the proletariat, the spies and traitors, whether they be heroin pushers or trade union bosses, to build the unity of the proletariat in struggle.

Heroin is an instrument of social control that suits power. Alongside the pushers, and the forces of repression there exists another hierarchy of control over the proletariat: the medico-psychiatric one. The sanitary decentralisation, the opening of centres for hygiene and mental health in every area, are the new instruments which capital is using to keep the contradictions of the capitalist metropolis under control, to render stupid and to drug the forces of the proletarian revolution. Whoever goes beyond the rule of State, of Work, of Family, is ‘mad’, can be labelled as deviant from childhood. As such, capital assigns his ghetto; will give him more heroin free, will stuff him with psychotropic drugs from the beginning, so that he doesn’t disturb the regular functioning of the social order.

Doctors and psychiatrists who administer such rubbish, especially to young people and women, are mad criminals, labelling antagonism and proletarian rebellion as ‘social deviance’. Neurotic and psychopathic subjects only because they cannot support the disgust of capitalist society. What does a psychiatrist who has been able to study without lifting a finger until he gets his degree know of proletarian life in the ghettos?

What we are fighting for is the fundamental right to self-determination of the proletariat. It must be the proletariat themselves to decide how, where and why they want to live. The psychiatrists, the criminologists, the priests, the trade union bosses, in their positions as social controllers of the proletariat are enemies, and as such should be struck down.

Attack the forces of repression, carabinieri and police. Expel and strike their friends, the traitors, the informers, the spies, from the factories, from the proletarian areas.

Attack the hierarchy of medico-psychiatric control.

Break up the internal hierarchy of control within the proletariat, the pushers and the shit fences.

Build the power of the armed proletariat.

(Nov. ’78)

Attacks against the police

1976

February

9 Rome: NAP claim an action injuring sergeant of the anti-terrorist brigade responsible for the killing of Anna Maria Mantini.

October

December

6 Rome: A NAP commando try to kill head of the Italian SDS (secret services), Alfonso Noce, also responsible for coordinating the police action resulting in the killing of comrade Anna Maria Mantini, Anna Maria, NAP militant, was shot dead by police on opening the door of her flat.

15 Milan: At 5,30 a.m. three members of the SDS break into the apartment of Walter Alesia, aged 20, and suspected of belonging to the Red Brigades. Alesia tries to escape, and in the shootout that follows, a police superintendent and a sergeant are killed. Alesia is wounded, then shot at point blank range.

1977

February

21: Two comrades are signaled to stop by a road patrol. One tries to make a run for it, and returning fire, kills one policeman and wounds another.

March

2 Florence: An explosive device is thrown against the carabinieri barracks.

12 Turin: Sergeant of the political police killed by a commando of Brigate combattente.

19 Bari, Lucca: Carabinieri barracks attacked by bombs in both towns.

22 Rome: Maria Pia Vianale of the NAP is recognised by a policeman on a bus. He is shot while trying to capture her and her companion. In the chase that follows, an armed park attendant who wanted to be a hero, was mistaken by police for another NAP member and shot dead.

April

14 Perugia: Unita comuniste combattenti claim an explosion against the police haedquarters of the town.

30 Florence: Powerful explosion at PS barracks. Prima Linea.

30 Genoa: A pressure cooker containing TNT is left in front of the car park for carabinieri squad cars, but remains unexploded.

May

15 Genoa: Incendiary bottles against police office.

19 Cantu: Carabinieri barracks bombed.

June

30 Catania: Pistol shots against the carabinieri barracks, claimed by the NAP.

30 Bologna: Bomb explodes at entrance to police office.

July

6 Leghorn: Bomb at the carabinieri barracks in relation to the execution of comrade Franco Lo Muscio in Rome. Gruppo combattenti comunisti.

8 Rome: Combattenti comunisti claim an action aimed at killing a policeman newly acquitted of killing comrade Mario Salvi. The attempt to bring him to justice was made in a restaurant where he was celebrating the outcome of his trial. The comrades missed their target, killing one of his guests instead.

December

18 Naples: A bomb explodes in front of the police station of Monte Calvario. Four comrades of Prima Linea are arrested shortly afterwards, accused of preparing a similar attack.

21 Turin: In a similar tactic to the previous night, Prima Linea bomb another carabinieri barracks.

31 Nuoro: Police vice-superintendent and an inspector are attacked w hen leaving the prison after giving their New Year greetings to the warders. The comrades of a Nuclei armati combattenti per il comunismo cell greet them on behalf of the prisoners with a shower of bullets.

1978

January

3 Padova: 3 carabinieri barracks bombed during the night by Organizzazione operaia per il comunismo in protest against heavy sentences meted out to two comrades.

8 Nuoro: Car of flying squad inspector set alight.

18 Novara: A Nucleo of the Formazione combattenti comuniste shoot at carabinieri on guard duty near a special prison.

19 Rome: The Red Brigades attack Carabinieri barracks with hand grenades and machine guns. The barracks lodge the infamous General Dalla Chiesa, responsible for the superprisons and the blitz operations against comrades all over Italy.

21 Ostia: Police sergeant’s car burned.

24 Venice: In a phone call to pres agency ANSA, the killing of a Carabinieri officer and a friend of his in an explosion is claimed by comrades.

May

1 Rome: ‘Today an armed proletarian formation has attacked the Carabinieri barracks. This is undoubtedly the best way to celebrate this 1st of May struggle. Create, organise armed counter-power. Freedom for all communist prisoners’.

1 Caporizzuto Island: Explosion under the window of local Carabinieri barracks.

2 Turin: New Carabinieri barracks under construction is blown up.

3 Turin: Two patrolling Carabinieri order a car to stop. Two young men get out, immobilise and handcuff the two disconcerted police and relieve them of their pistols.

4 Milan: Squadre armate proletarie disarm two policemen and set fire to the squad car.

28 Florence: Reparti comunisti combattenti break into a police station, handcuff the two policemen present and take away money and pistols.

July

1 Rome: Dynamite attack at police headquarters.

10 Caglari: A German army officer based at Decimomannu finds his car burnt.

12 Padova: Organizzazione operaia per il comunismo and Proletari armati per il comunismo claim the bomb attacks during the night against Carabinieri and police barracks, also against the prison and prison warders.

19 Oristano: The central radio of USAFE, an American military corporation, is assailed and devastated following protests by local inhabitants concerning its installation.

22 Rome: Two Red Brigades comrades surprise and disarm a policeman, then handcuff him to the railings of his house.

25 Nuoro: Dynamite charge destroys Carabinieri car.

Restructuring repression

Vigili Urbani (City Police), Guardia di Finanza (Customs Officers), Guardia Forestale (Forest Warders): apart from the city police, who have been used in the service of public order since the first struggles of the Movement in 1977 (in Rome city police armed with machine guns fired into a demonstration), it was with the Moro kidnapping that this body increasingly took on the characteristics of special police and developed functions of public origin. The customs officers were present at road blocks during the whole Moro operation, and in three Italian centres (Milan, Rome, Ancona) as many anti-guerrilla centres were instituted directly by the Customs. The Forestry on the other hand have been seen in the city squares since theMoro case, and have been put in charge of protecting NATO installations. The Minister Marcora has an armed escort of a dozen forestry warders trained at Castro Pretoria.

Guardie Giurate (private police): these are the true watchdogs of the bourgeoisie. They have increased rapidly in recent times, they often associate in ‘service’ cooperative for banks and commercial activities, but it seems that their way of enjoying themselves is by giving chase to comrades doing flyposting or shooting into demonstrations. In total, according to the latest census, there were 21,675 who work in 520 vigilance institutes; 3,042 who belong to proprietors’ associations, 56,359 employed by factories or public bodies, and to this should also be added the 1,385 private investigators. In total this amounts to a true army, with 82,000 armed people, as big as the PS itself (source: Quale Difesa, No 4, year 1977).

Carabinieri (CC) and Publica Sicurezza (PS): the Carabinieri have always been the special body in the service of capital. Through Dalla Chiesa, they are in practice dependant on the President of the Council of State, Andreotti. One of their main tasks, apart from carrying out actions characteristic of the secret services, is that of directly surveying the special prisons.

There is a project to enrol another 6,000 over the next three years.

At present the Carabinieri can count on about 90,000 men spread over the national territory, with three divisions, each by geographical area, 9 brigades detached in the major cities, and 24 legions in the most important provinces, and capillary control is accomplished by over 5,000 CC stations, even in the most isolated town

In order to dispel any ambiguity which might arise, I should like to make it clear that when I speak of armed struggle I am not basing myself on artificial divisions imposed by bourgeois laws where the throwing of dozens of molotov cocktails runs the risk of not being considered a situation of armed struggle by some comrades.

It is not the technical instrument we use which qualifies an action as violent or not, but rather its perspective in the confrontation with the class enemy. To employ armed struggle means essentially to be ready to respond to State violence and exploitation blow for blow at every level. It means passing from the purely defensive phase to one of attack in order to strike the enemy’s centres of organisation and repression. At the same time it must be capable of indicating to all the exploited where the true enemy is concealed, and that it is possible to strike it, it is not indistinguishable nor invulnerable. The latter is all the more important in an advanced phase of social democracy. Here the State is trying to draw the proletariat into its own logic to have them identify with the adversary through the mechanism of consensus and the co-management of exploitation, and at the same time use terror by exhibiting a strong apparatus of criminalisation and repression. This situation can be seen today not only in the German Federal Republic, but also in Italy and all the other areas of advanced capitalism.

Different methods and choices can obviously exist within the revolutionary struggle, not all of which can be shared from an anarchist viewpoint, but I shall speak of this later.

I also hope to avoid the ambiguity of certain positions which, after maintaining that they do not object to taking up the question of armed struggle in itself, confuse the issue with such statements as: “the present situation (...) does not impose the need for clandestine armed struggle which inevitably ends up demanding all the energies of the militants involved.” (Rivista Anarchica, March, 1977, p. 12)

Above all I should like to point out once again how the whole question becomes abstract through such reasoning. Armed struggle comes to be seen as something cut off from the rest of revolutionary activity, as a separate, purely “technical” and military phase which would steal time and energy from... one doesn’t know the rest. Besides, it seems to me that such arguments distort the problem by qualifying armed struggle with the adjective “clandestine” in a way that seems inevitable, negative and degenerating. Given the fact that armed struggle is always in itself illegal, it does not seem to me that clandestinity can be made to coincide exclusively with one’s own choice, but rather that it is an eventuality to be borne in mind and does not fatally imply the creation of a vanguard/mass relationship of the Leninist kind. On the other hand, to come back to the present situation who can say that the comrades who carry out a certain type of action (for example the ambush in Pisa on the doctor responsible for the assassination of comrade Serantini), which can certainly be defined as clandestine, are themselves “clandestine” and on the contrary are not carrying out a normal open practice of militancy?

Why violence?

There seems to be reasonable agreement among the great majority of comrades concerning some fundamental problems: that violence is not the spontaneous expression of our own free will, but it is the scientifically organised violence of oppression and exploitation implemented by the State which constrains us as revolutionaries to reply with an opposing, liberatory violence if we do not want to bow down to the beating of our employers. Ours is always therefore a defensive violence, which does not mean that it limits itself to warding off the enemy’s blows.

If what I have just said is true, it seems clear to me that in reality the problem of when armed response is justifiable or inevitable does not exist. We would be short-sighted or opportunistic if we could not see beyond the more or less democratic and permissive veneer with which power covers its homicidal essence. Whatever form it takes, the exploitation of man by man always merits a reply in the perspective of its violent destruction. It is not a question of deciding who “fired first” in order to know whether our defence is “legitimate” or not: for centuries the State has “fired first”, and our deaths do not only come about in the streets under the bullets of the police, but also in the factories, the prisons, asylums, ghettos, shanty towns, the clandestine abortion clinics, and the mines all over the world. If it were a question of a moral problem there would not be the need for even a minute’s discussion in the face of the hundreds of comrades, of exploited, assassinated daily and whose blood cries vengeance to our conscience.

But the problem is not only a moral one. Our rage, our revolutionary will, must always be accompanied by lucid reasoning which allows us to conduct the struggle in the most consistent and effective way possible. This is not to say that offering oneself to be slaughtered on the alter of the martyr renders service to the revolutionary cause. The revolutionary act, we all know, is a collective act that presupposes a high level of generalisation in the consciousness and the will for radical change in social relationships in a communist direction. And it is here that most criticisms raised by comrades against the practice of armed struggle are aimed today. They say: we are not living in a pre-insurrectional situation; the masses are controlled by the reformists and certain actions are not understood.

To this objection one could reply that the revolutionary movement should not always limit itself to carrying out the “popular will” which often risks transforming itself into something intangible or of disputable interpretation. Alongside the “cultural” work of propaganda and the diffusion of the revolutionary perspective, the anti-State movement should also know how to put their affirmations into practice, especially in a situation where the ideological hegemony of the reformist forces has lulled the consciousness aqnd will of popular struggle or where they have been suffocated by State repression. Ideological dissertations and theoretical propaganda are not enough to shift the power relations that really exist. They must express themselves in actions where increasingly wider strata in the class of oppressed can recognise their own real needs.

This perspective might, at the limit, be identified with the so-called exemplary deed which certainly requires careful reflection on the relationship between active minority and social situation, and on the choice of objective. But this, it seems to me, cannot be reduced to referring to a “glorious” historical past that we want to contribute to.

In the face of the present situation, the argument of the exemplary deed seems to me to be limiting and inadequate. It seems to me that we find ourselves before something qualitively different. Today certain actions are carried out by more or less specialised and appropriately organised minorities, but they are the expression of a movement which cannot be simply discarded as minoritarian on the basis of mere mathematical calculation. In saying this we are not only referring to situations such as those in Bologna and Rome on March 11 and 12, where actions of armed certain “clandestine” actions operated and claimed by organisations which have made a declared choice of armed struggle, such as the Red Brigades, the NAP or the miriad of new names which appear day after day.

The anti-institutional movement and violence

In the present situation it is no longer possible to say that actions such as armed clashes with the police, attacks on the centres of exploitation or the physical persons of some of the better known persecutors of revolutionary militants, are only the will and fruit of the painstaking efforts of a handful theoreticians of the professionals of clandestinity, separate from the mass.

Today, when the Montedison electronics factory, or the Luisa Spagnoli shops, or the doctor who approved the assassination of Serantini are struck, this only adds to the demands and levels of consciousness of a movement which is something more than a simple conglomeration of groups, collectives or tiny parties. It is a movement which includes large sectors of those who have been pushed to the margins of society, “non-guaranteed” students, women, those in insecure jobs, and less numerous but no less important, sectors of industrial workers, service workers and technicians, etc. A movement which has singled out, perhaps instinctively, perhaps not clear in its complexity, but certainly with precision, the enemy present not only in the repressive apparatus of the State and the governors most in evidence, but also in the new reformist bosses of the trades unions.

The line of refusal and opposition to capitalism and the reformist lie is becoming concrete through certain actions that are the patrimony of the movement. This is emerging from struggles that, although not carried out by the majority, certainly belong to the mass.

Accustomed for years to having to count on a practice of impotence in a movement which has been trying to go beyond the level of “opinion”; accustomed to dealing with problems typical of a conscious minority more or less isolated from the real movement, many of us find ourselves uncomfortable in this situation. This explains the obvious difficulty in centering on real problems and the tendency get lost in quite marginal research which has already been surpass by the real level of the struggle.

For example, the difficulty which appears through the repetition of the obvious but useless ideological “distinction” based on the classic argument: the Red Brigades are Marxist-Leninist and we are anarchists, therefore there exist insurmountable differences between us. This question could even get to the heart of the problem if it were not closed within the abstract contestation of the two tendencies seen as being static and dogmatic, instead of analysing the concrete problem of translating these theoretical choices into practice.

And here we could consider the problem of how the Marxist-Leninist conception (but perhaps more Castroist than Leninist) of the armed party translates itself into a practice of professionals of clandestinity chosen in advance, which is the major criticism I should make of the Red Brigades.

The decision that certain comrades should constitute the armed wing of the class recreates a situation of separation which can become the main cause of errors in evaluation made by those comrades who, closed within the logic of the specialized minority, often find it hard to relate their own actions to the political level and the needs of the movement. It is one thing for a workers’ nucleus to decide upon the punishment of a foreman, a fascist or the sabotage of a plant, and entrust the execution of this to a restricted number of comrades (for obvious reasons of security, efficiency, etc.). It is another, completely different, for a restricted number of comrades absent from the situation and with little or no links with it, to decide to carry out the same action.

Besides, within the logic of the latter, such armed groups are not formed on the basis of a natural process of “distillation” where the more politically mature and those with a greater capacity for types of actions become involved in the more advanced struggles. Instead this comes to be based on quite personal idealistic choice, a method that does not seem to me to be right, even within a vanguardist logic, which, moreover, I do not share.

The right road is not therefore, in my opinion, the armed party of military specialists, but should be instead that of widening the area of revolutionary struggle against the State. This is so, not because it has been decided by a handful of intellectuals, but because the anti-institutional movement that has developed cannot withdraw or procrastinate on positions already conquered to wait for better times, but must try to go ahead. Experience shows that the fascistic social democratic State is not disposed to concede the minimum of space that is not snatched from it by force.

Why the movement is going forward

At this point the problem to be faced is not so much that of rendering the actions of armed struggle “comprehensible” to the movement so much as that of the relationship between the revolutionary movement which is beginning to emerge all over the country (and which precisely because it is revolutionary contains contradictions that need to be faced without obstruction), and the rest of the proletarian movement where the reformists still manage to exercise their own hegemony. It is mainly a question of the workers who have been guaranteed relative well being from the struggles of ’68, etc., paid for by their integration into the logic of work, exploitation and the State, and who are passing through a critical time.

The capitalist crisis at world level has on the one hand eliminated the system’s margins of recuperation, preventing the unions from being able to play the role of containing and reabsorbing struggles as they were called to do in ’68/’69. At that time revolutionary tendencies manifested themselves in a period that was still one of expansion, where capital still had areas in which to negotiate. Today the system has very little to concede to wage earners in exchange for their implication in the process of fascisization of society.

Cracks have opened in the reformist-controlled worker’s movement. A certain disorientation has spread, a generalized discontent, but which is finding it hard to transform itself into the will for social change, or to identify the enemy clearly. A precarious equilibrium has been established between workers and their managers, which an attempt must be made to shatter. We know that the marginalised and the “guaranteed” have in reality a common enemy, but the latter lack an awareness of whom those enemies are.

The movement must go forward to shatter the reformist equilibrium. It must demonstrate with its struggles that there exists a pole of anti-capitalist and anti-State aggregation, which can become a point of reference even for those who are guaranteed-nothing but exploitation.

Translated from “Anarchismo”

Towards the generalisation of armed struggle

The general conditions of life in this country are particularly desperate. A tightly knit campaign of collaboration with the governmental forces is allowing the media to continue to present a tolerable picture. Any sign of insufferance in the mass is immediately circumscribed with the greatest attention. The refusal of workers in Turin to strike in answer to the killing of a journalist unleashed a sea of interpretations and inquests. Famous sociologists met to provide the analyses that the State in its most brutally coercive forms (police, judiciary, prisons) needs. At the same time they are fabricating such palliatives as the law on unemployment, the rent laws, the tax reforms — all ludicrous attempts to stop an avalanche with a piece of paper.

Unemployment is on the increase, private investment is diminishing (the capitalists prefer to put their money safely abroad), the work situation must be remedied with the least damage to the State, by having recourse to the public deficit. This upsets our situation at the level of international economic credibility, which we are obliged to substitute with political credibility. In other words, if we want German and American money we must show them our disposition to repress any form of revolutionary dissent that might develop in our country. We must demonstrate that these forms will no longer exist once things have been organised definitively, with the farthings of the imperialist giants and the consent of the Communist Party.

This party’s reactionary guarantee is necessary for various reasons. First of all, its ideological past, the capacity to confuse the exploited, the progressive veneer, are none other than a simple attempt at a “calm” passage to a social democratic capitalism with wide State participation.

This guarantee would have been impossible in a different international perspective, with the USSR in more real contrast with the interests of the United States. An Italian or European road to socialism is absurd. The Italian Communist Party are available for discussion with all the reactionary forces only because the USSR have been so disposed for some time.

All this should help us to understand how the identification of the class front can no longer pass through ideological factors, but must come about through the productive situation. The workers are open to attacking the forces of exploitation at the place of exploitation as soon as the ideological coverings which have been a barrier to their understanding for so long have broken down. This disposition becomes even clearer and more acute in a situation a, accentuated by lack of work. In the last analysis the unemployed workers are even more exploited and miserable than the employed workers.

The disposition to struggle among the exploited is not only propionate to exploitation, but also to the effectiveness of ideological instruments. The more these seem clear and transparent, the more they become great crusades against nothing, and exploitation remains intact. The weaker they are, the less capable they are of “guiding” the masses, who find the road of the struggle, of class cohesion and the objectives of the conflict themselves.

The level of conflict

This can be defined as the whole of the conditions that characterise the class conflict. To know these conditions is very important, because one is often carried, for different reasons, to consider some more important than others, with the obvious conclusion that those who do not accept the same ones come to be defined counter-revolutionary.

It is not possible to fix a scale of merit concerning the conditions that determine the level of the struggle. It would in fact be out of place to overestimate economic conditions, underestimating, for example, ideological conditions which, precisely because they are breaking down, produce certain consequences and not others.

Heightening the level of conflict

Every historical moment has its own level of conflict. In a certain sense, history is history in that it manages to trace these levels and give accounts of the conditions which caused them.

Changes in the level of conflict are normal events which often come in “waves” which move around an axis which seems to remain stable even during continual change. This something is the ideological structure of power or, if we prefer, ideological structure itself, in that revolution does not have an ideological structure until it takes the concrete form of counter-revolution.

To move the conflict to the fictitious level of ideology often means to lose the concrete ground of the struggle, the only ground on which any theoretical consideration is valid.

There being no doubt that revolutionaries have every interest in raising the level of consciousness, it remains equally beyond doubt that there can be no interest in reaching ideological perfection, as this would, sooner or later, become functional only to the re-establishment of power. In the specific case of the ideology of violence that is being discussed in Italy today, this becomes functional to the State, consenting the oscillations which allow the latter to become paternalistically open to discussion (see the Bologna meeting surrounded by six thousand policemen) one minute, then rigidly adopting strong means such as special prisons, police intimidation, special laws and tribunals the next.

It is not discussions about violence that raise the level of conflict, nor the debate on which type of violence is acceptable and which should be refused that pushes the exploited towards their liberation. No one can teach anything to those who have been suffering every kind of repression for centuries, on this argument. The ideological curtain falls, and the stage remains in its stark reality, that of the class struggle, with on the one hand the exploited and on the other the servants of the exploiters walking to their bosses’ heels.

When we speak of the need for violence we are certainly not doing it to convince the exploited. They know this very well themselves, and put it into effect any time they have a chance to do so, with all the means at their disposition. We speak of the need for violence in order to point to the enemy with greater clarity, an enemy that tries to to conceal itself in even in the guise of brother or comrade.

The discussion on violence is also an element of great importance in order to recognise all those who, at the time of words, were so clever at splitting hairs, proposing models of the “right kind of violence” to the masses, based on their ideological judgments. When the level of the conflict heightens for all the reasons we have mentioned, all such discourses become both useless and determining. They are useless because the real confrontation renders them out of date and senseless; determining because they sweep away the last of the illusions and denounce barren attempts to recuperate.

As anarchists we are for the social revolution, that is we are the immediate and definitive overthrow of the State. We are for revolutionary logic, which is above all a destructive logic.

We are for the destruction of the State, which means we are for the physical (not verbal) destruction of the institutions and people who represent and bring about the State. We are against the police, the judges, the bureaucrats, the trade union leaders, and the bosses. Not only are we against police control, bourgeois justice, techno-bureaucracy, trade unionism and capitalism; we are concretely against the people who bring about these ideological forms in everyday life, turning them into instruments of repression. And this being against must translate itself into precise actions of attack. If we are against the police, we must not let ourselves be drawn into the ideological trap of those who, in the name of a misunderstood pluralism or a retrograde enlightenment, give space and feasibility to the enemy, affirming that everyone has the right to express him or herself, therefore also the police — who when they do express themselves do so with batons. If we are against all judges and bureaucrats, all bosses and the trade unions in their service, we must not wait for someone to tell us: “this boss committed a particular wrong or this trade union leader is guilty. of such and such, this judge is particularly reactionary”. No! All of them, without ideological distinction, all the police, all magistrates, all bureaucrats and all the trades union leaders, all the bosses and all those in their service are guilty and should be attacked with any possible means, at any moment, at whatever the cost.

The moral justification is to be found in the fact of exploitation itself. Anyone who has been subjected to centuries of the monstrous pressure of work, anyone who has participated in building the world knowing that he or she would never be able to enjoy any of it, does not need to wait for a particular sign of wickedness from the other side. He or she is authorised to attack, to strike, and to kill, just as the bosses and their servants attack, strike and kill at any time they like.

The problem of strategy

The fact that it is possible to discuss the methods and the best forms in which to conduct this attack, is a problem that has nothing to do with the moral foundation that justifies the attack itself.

Any such discussion must therefore become a discussion on strategy, on the evaluation of means and the achieving of ends. It cannot be said for example that “anarchists do not do certain things because...”. This argument does not make sense. What anarchists do as such must be evaluated in reality, not in the abstraction of theory, otherwise anarchism would not make sense, and become a mystifying ideology like any other.

Certainly strategic choices are not separate from the fundamental anarchist analysis, which when it is placed in reality becomes an indispensable part of revolutionary intervention. But if this same analysis were to be cut off from the reality of the struggle and become the product of some illuminated mind and transformed into a militants’ catechism, it would simply enter the field of ideology and become functional to the power it was pretending to attack.

That is why, when anarchists criticise and attack the claimed revolutionary role of the armed military parties such as the Red Brigades, the NAP or other more recent formations, they do it starting from an anarchist analysis, but one which bears in mind the real conditions of the class conflict today in Italy. It is not an anarchist analysis planted in the vague realms of ideology, that feels obliged to give judgment on matters which it not only sees as estranged from it, but also as hostile. It is not enough to be anarchists to say what is right concerning the struggle that is in the course of development. It is necessary to be within a concrete perspective to be available for the revolutionary confrontation, to have evaluated well what all that means for each one of us at a personal level, and at a global level for the whole of the anarchist movement.

We have often published the documents of the armed struggle organisations that are operating in our country. Sometimes, on these very pages, we have also traced the essential lines of a critique of the closed military party. But we have not, when these comrades were persecuted and chased away, claimed to measure the distance separating them from us. This is because the distance, without doubt present and significant, could only have been put down on paper, therefore resulted in a banal ideological question. This has led to some misunderstanding by other comrades concerning our position, fuelling an artificial argument that would have had no reason to exist had these comrades considered it more expedient to engage themselves in first person in underlining these differences which they only identified at an ideological level.

Now however things have changed, and the time has come to raise our voices loud and strong, so that even the deaf can hear us and those who pretend to be deaf see themselves shown up in front of the serious comrades who really want to struggle for the liberation of all the exploited and for anarchy.

The reason we have given space to the phenomenon of armed struggle over the past few years and supported the need to defend these points however contradictory and dangerous they might be, was because we felt the road undertaken was an important one. We felt that this road could — which in fact has happened — take another direction, that of mass armed struggle, of generalised illegal behaviour which could deny and finally eliminate the very conditions of the initial clandestine struggle based on the closed military party. To put ourselves against this behaviour from the very beginning, as so many have done, would have been a contribution to the State repression against them, and would have prevented any development in a libertarian direction, something we considered possible from the start. By this we do not mean a libertarian development in the closed military parties, but the development of armed struggle in general and of all the comrades who work in this direction.

Disillusionment is pushing many people to a practice of generalised illegal behaviour. This behaviour materialises either at the workplace, or in the field of unemployment and criminalisation. This phenomenon goes far beyond the strategic perspectives of any closed military party, no matter how big and effective it might be. The Red Brigades, the NAP, Prima Linea, and many other organisations, have nothing left to say apart from their own self criticism. Either they integrate their actions within the plan of generalised armed conflict, which is happening slowly, or they will be destined to extinction.

Our task is also this. Just as we contributed to checking the stupid and malevolant criticisms and to avoiding the global repressive tactic hoped for by the State, today, as anarchists we must continue to give our contribution to the clarification of this process of generalised armed conflict, singling out, criticising and attacking any attempt — no matter where it comes from — to impose strategic and political models which the daily practice of struggle have declared out of date.

Insurrection

It is within the perspective of generalised mass armed struggle that the insurrection takes on a libertarian meaning, and marks the definitive critique of any ‘closed’ attempt to organise the management of the class conflict.

Generalised armed conflict is the natural outcome of a situation that is getting worse every day. The exploited are beginning to point out this necessity in a series of anti-institutional actions that are continually spreading. The isolated acts of punishment carried out by minority clandestine groups against some of those responsible for exploitation are coming to be accepted with satisfaction and approved by the mass. Attempts by the unions to organise protest strikes against such actions have had, at the FIAT for example, a very small number of participants.

There is no doubt that today the movement of the exploited, in its various forms and all its contradictions, is capable of attacking capital and the State structures that defend it. There is no doubt that this attack is actually happening. The only thing that seems strange to us is that at this point in the struggle, steps backward are being made, shown in the persistence in using instruments (such as the armed party) that although they may have been effective in some way yesterday, are now anachronistic and threaten to become inward looking.

As anarchist revolutionaries we know very well that in this phase of class confrontation clandestine forms of resistance are still necessary. We know just as well that at the same time this presents negative aspects, that is, they risk becoming authoritarian.

It is our task to be careful in order to stop this involution, to fight so that the confrontation becomes generalised in its insurrectional form which guarantees it not only as anarchist strategy, but also as a libertarian perspective.

When speaking of insurrection in the past, many comrades immediately brought out historical examples: the Matese gang, the Pontelungo conspiracy, and other such events, accusing us of “revolutionary romanticism” or of being “idealists”, or of being “objectively dangerous”. To us this all seems ridiculous.

Insurrection is the attempt made with revolution sight. As anarchists, insurrection remains our privileged element, but this insurrection must be generalised, at least to the level of the widest possible practice of illegal behaviour. This is what is actually happening. What should we be feeling sorry about? Maybe we should complain about the fact that the contradictions of capital and the revolutionary claims of the exploited are preventing us from carrying on our sweet dreams?

Let us take heart. If hard times are ahead of us we know how we shall face them. It is precisely in these times that the sheep discard their wolves’ clothing.The time has come to put the chatter aside, and to fight. Let us take courage and go ahead. And then, because as always the best form of defence is attack, let us begin by attacking first. There is no lack of objectives. May the bosses and their servants feel how hard it can become to carry on their jobs as exploiters.

Anarchismo

On the problem of armed struggle

An important element that has emerged repeatedly in anarchists’ analyses of armed struggle has been the following: as armed struggle is the culminating moment of the revolution, before engaging in it we must be sure that the phase we are passing through is at least a pre-revolutionary one. In the case of the contrary we would end up being crushed by repression and everything else, and the political work that that the movement has always carried out, such as counter-information and propaganda, would be destroyed.

We feel it is important to clarify this position, underlining a number of points:

analyses are based on the personal positions of the comrades who work them out, and this could be otherwise;

even if it does not appear officially, the positions of the organisations these comrades belong to affect the analyses themselves;

there is a logical error in stating that armed struggle must await the pre-revolutionary phase, as it also plays a part in the creation of that phase;

there can be no one single definition of what the pre-revolutionary phase is.

...The first two points should be borne in mind in view of the fact that many of the analyses being put forward today are those of older comrades whose political awareness comes from another stage in the class struggle. Younger comrades, whose daily lives are often more anti-authoritarian than those of the ones writing the analyses, often refuse to do this kind of work, or find that they lack the instruments to do so due to the liberalisation of schooling. The analyses put forward by these comrades is therefore their actions themselves, and their behaviour has put many organisational structures in crisis.

It is no longer fashionable to speak in the name of an organisation, but this does not mean that analyses reflect the ideas of the individual comrade that wrote them. They can reflect the strategic positions of organisations that these comrades constantly refer to either in theory or in practice. The longer the organisation procrastinates, the further off the “pre-revolutionary phase” will be.

We come to the third point: the statement that armed struggle necessitates a pre-revolutionary phase contains a logical contradiction. Implicit in this statement is an over-evaluation of the military-type organisation compared with other forms of armed intervention against repression. Given the level of the conflict at the present time, it is in the interests of repression to restrict the spreading of armed actions, and at the same time be able to point at a specific organisation as representing the phenomenon in its entirety. This can then be used at a spectacular level in order to justify repression.

In substance there is no reason to accept this interpretation elaborated by the political police. The actions of the so-called historic armed organizations are only a minimal part of the phenomenon of armed struggle, even if they manage to be the most spectacular action. In reality this phenomenon consists of a vast arc of illegal and anti-authoritarian behaviour which is threatening to spread uncontrollably. The State knows this very well, as do the political and pseudo-revolutionary (but substantially counter-revolutionary) groups that are trying to jump on the band-wagon. To reduce the problem of armed struggle in Italy today to what is being done by groups such as the Red Brigades, would be absurd. That would be to repeat, using all the weight of revolutionary analysis, the schemes of reasoning that are so useful to capitalism. It is this anti-authoritarian illegal behaviour that signals what is defined the pre-revolutionary phase rather than, as some maintain, that it is this phase that renders such behaviour rational.

Something should also be said concerning the problem that a single definition of the pre-revolutionary phase is not possible. Some comrades imagine that it must always resemble the conditions of the storming of the Winter Palace, and anything other than that must only spring from a worsening crisis in capitalism’s management of the economy. Others think that first an imbalance must develop at international level, or there must be a change in interests in the areas into which the world is divided. These points are all valid, but taken individually they cannot put in doubt the fact that our revolutionary task is that of pushing the exploited towards rebellion and the struggle against the exploiters, not to daydream about the possibility of the victory of our organisations in the case of conflict. Possibly it has not yet been understood where the revolutionary task of anarchists should lie. How is it that some still think in terms of the name, the organisation, whereby Azione Rivoluzionaria, by the mere fact of having put a beautiful phrase of Durruti at the beginning of their most significant document, should consider themselves to be the only possible alternative to the Red Brigades? Perhaps it has not been understood that the only alternative is that of generalised armed struggle pushed to an insurrectional level, something far more meaningful than the greatest feats of the historic organisations.

Forward comrades!

Revolt is a fact that concerns individuals and organisations. It is not the revolution, but is what makes the revolution possible. Without the continual revolt of conscious individuals there will be nothing but the betraying revolution of the neo-bosses using the organs of the class struggle. And revolt is consciousness of oneself, one’s own involvement, the sacrifices we must be capable of making the hopes, the joys, the advances and the possible dangers. Revolt is what characterises the life of each one of us.

It is in moments of great social tension, when the contradictions of the capitalist structure explode, that the consequences of the little compromises and weaknesses we ended up accepting in the period when nothing was happening emerge. It is opportunism that has forged its path among us, opportunism that finds cunning words to disguise itself, to smuggle its way in as a refined revolutionary tactic.

Forward comrades! Let us begin to call on what is inside us, in our relationships with the comrades closest to us, in our relationship with the organisations that we belong to.

It is not so difficult. The enemy facing us is doing so with such harshness that he is not difficult to identify, and if we identify him we must strike, and if we strike we must be ready to pay the consequences of our actions. These are the tasks awaiting us.

May our discourses be action, and may other comrades learn to esteem us for what we do and not what we represent as a tradition, and may the State learn to fear anarchists once again, not as inheritors of Ravachol or Henry, Durruti or Makhno, but because they are capable of giving life to organisations of attack, and are not just groups of social scientists who produce brilliant analyses on the problems of the moment.

Today we have some possibilities in the front line of the revolutionary conflict. We have not made any serious mistakes in the recent past to put us in a bad light in the eyes of the exploited

Perhaps this is because what we have done has been too insignificant to have left any room for serious mistakes, but all the same we have not made any. At the present time we can still be a point of reference a point of coagulation both for the exploited and for many militant revolutionaries who come from authoritarian organisations and have lived through the great trauma of the errors of these organizations. We will not repeat the mistakes we made in 1968. We do not accept confrontation on the abstract basis of endless theoretical discussions. We are measuring ourselves in the concrete field of action.

We are not demonstrating the fear that usually leads us to close in on ourselves because with the authoritarians, the Marxists, there is nothing that can be done. The past few months have shown the development of a strong anti-authoritarian consciousness in many groups of militants, as well as in some strata of the exploited, particularly those subjected to processes of criminalisation: we are not contributing to extinguishing this consciousness.

Let us prepare for every possible relationship

confrontation on an abstract basis of endless theoretical discussions. We are measuring ourselves in the concrete field of action.

We are not showing the fear that usually leads us to close in on ourselves because with the authoritarians, the marxists, there is nothing that can be done. The past few months have shown the development of a strong anti-authoritarian consciousness in many groups of militants, as well as in some strata of the exploited, particularly those subjected to processes of criminalisation: we are not contributing to extinguishing this consciousness.

Let us prepare for every possible relationship. We are anarchists, and as such are for anti-authoritarian action. But we believe in the need to attack power right away, at all levels and with every possible means. Here we can measure ourselves and find a possible point of collaboration.

Recent experiences which come from the level of social conflict in Italy today tell us that the authoritarian strategy is a losing one. These experiences have been points of reference not only for us, but also for many other comrades. This is not the time for theoretical debate; it is time to single out the objectives to be attacked amongst the great counter-revolutionary alliances.